ROME
Global Post
Jason Berry on Jun 10, 2015
ROME — The Vatican announced today that Pope Francis’s nine Council of Cardinals — top churchmen charged with reforming the Roman Curia — embraced a plan by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley for a tribunal to weigh “allegations of the abuse of office by a bishop connected with the abuse of minors.”
The proposal, accepted by the pope, marks a shift in Vatican handling of the long crisis by establishing a church arena for proceedings against bishops, who with few exceptions have had de facto immunity for any role in concealing sexual predators.
The tribunal will be part of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which has long judged theologians accused of straying from doctrinal unity. In a development pushed by Pope Benedict, who as a cardinal governed the CDF for most of John Paul’s long papacy, the office has in recent years defrocked close to 900 priests for abuse of youngsters.
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The development was welcomed by lay people appointed by the pope to his advisory board, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
“I am very pleased that Pope Francis has approved our commission’s proposal concerning bishop accountability in case of abuse of minors,” Dr. Catherine Bonnet, a French psychiatrist with a history of treating abuse survivors told GroundTruth.
“It is a very important move forward for the protection of minors,” she said from France, echoing praise of Peter Saunders, an abuse survivor in London on the commission.
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