Pope Francis creates panel to speed up appeals from clergy accused of sex crimes

By Ginger Adams Otis
New York Daily News
November 12, 2014

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-francis-creates-panel-clergy-sex-crime-appeals-article-1.2007819

Pope Francis will streamline the appeals process for clergy accused of sex crimes.

A new panel created by Pope Francis will speed up appeals from clergy accused of sex crimes and other abuses, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Seven cardinals or bishops will sit on the panel and dedicate themselves to examining cases that normally would go to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis wants a faster crackdown on priests who sexually abuse children, according to the Vatican.

Critics say the Catholic Church has moved too slowly in the past to remove or punish pedophile priests.

The new panel will handle all appeals except those of bishops. Those will be assessed by the all the congregation members.

Last week, Pope Francis defrocked a priest found guilty of pedophilia in Argentina.

Former clergyman Jose Mercau was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2011 after admitting to sexually abusing 14 teenagers.

Pope Francis stopped short of excommunicating Mercau, but stripped him of his clergy status.

Advocates of sex abuse victims in Argentina applauded the Pope’s move, but said the church still needed to move faster.

“The church still has a long way to go,” Sebastian Cuattromo, director of an advocacy group called Adultxs for the Rights of Infancy, told The Associated Press.

Cuattromo, who was sexually abused by a priest in Buenos Aires at age 13, went public with his story in 2012, after the clergyman who molested him was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Widespread allegations of sexual abuse stretching back decades and a coordinated coverup within the Catholic Church have cost the institution millions in payouts and settlements.

The scandal rocked the church and dismayed its worldwide flock of 1.2 billion people.

Pope Francis, at a meeting with abuse victims this year, made far-reaching promises about holding clerics accountable for sheltering pedophile priests.

He also begged forgiveness from those molested by Catholic clergy.