UNITED STATES
VICE News
By Tess Owen
June 4, 2016
Under the new church laws announced by Pope Francis on Saturday, Catholic bishops who cover up for pedophile priests will be investigated and could face removal from office.
The papal decree is the result of a long fight to end the child sex abuse scandal that has rattled the Roman Catholic Church, and an effort to fix systemic failures within the church hierarchy that have led to abusers not being held responsible.
Sexual abuse victims have long contended that bishops will often relocate abusive priests to other parishes, rather than reporting them to the police or church authorities.
From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See received sex abuse allegations concerning about 3,000 priests dating back 50 years.
Saturday’s papal decree supposedly enacts what Francis approved last year: the creation of a Vatican tribunal for judging bishops who are accused of covering up or failing to act in child abuse cases by priests.
But some analysts see the new law as falling short of his original promises.
Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America, told the Associated Press that what was significant about the new law is that it doesn’t mention that original proposal for the tribunal, which would have criminalized and prosecuted negligence.
“There’s nothing breaking here,” Martens said. …
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement that he was “extraordinarily skeptical.”
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