Bishops who hide abuse to face tribunal

Sky News
June 10, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/06/11/bishops-who-hide-abuse-to-face-tribunal.html

Pope Francis has approved the creation of an internal Church tribunal empowered to punish bishops who cover up sex abuse by priests.

Under the reform, bishops suspected of protecting pedophile clerics or of failing to respond promptly to allegations of abuse could face charges of 'abuse of episcopal office' under canon law, the Church's internal set of rules.

The move comes after the credibility of the Church's efforts to address the scourge of pedophilia was called into question amid fresh cover-up allegations involving Australian cardinal George Pell.

Pell, the Vatican's finance chief, has been accused by Peter Saunders, a British member of the Vatican's child protection commission, of being an 'almost sociopathic' man who covered up abuse and tried to buy the silence of at least one victim.

Pell has threatened legal action and has been supported by the Vatican but the Briton, a survivor of abuse by a priest, has refused to apologise.

A child sex abuse royal commission holding public hearings in Australia wants Cardinal Pell to give evidence before it later this year in relation to widespread abuse in the Ballarat diocese.

Pell has said he is prepared to return from Rome to testify.

The creation of the new Vatican tribunal follows a recommendation from a commission set up last year to uncover sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

The panel's recommendation was also recently endorsed by the C9 group of cardinals who advise Francis, but was attacked as not going far enough by members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The campaign group's president, Barbara Blaine, said the Church's record of protecting abusers meant it couldn't be relied upon to hold bishops to account.

'As long as clerics are in charge of dealing with other clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes, little will change,' she said.

'Church officials should join us in reforming secular abuse laws so that clerics who hurt kids and hide predators will be criminally charged.'

To implement the new system, the Pope has ordered the creation of a new legal unit within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a section of the Vatican's bureaucracy that was founded to defend the Church from heresy.

The unit will be headed by a senior official appointed by the Pope.

But initial complaints about their conduct will continue to go through one of the three other Vatican departments that have always dealt with complaints about bishops.

The new unit will also be empowered to assist in criminal cases against priests charged with abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, the Vatican said.

No bishop has ever been dismissed from office for covering up for pedophiles within the clergy.