VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register
BY CAROL GLATZ, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
June 6, 2016
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will set up a panel of legal experts to help him in deciding whether to remove a religious superior or bishop from office for failing to protect minors and vulnerable adults from sex abuse.
Vatican offices will continue to investigate claims of negligence on the part of bishops, ordinaries or religious superiors under their jurisdiction. But the Pope — who makes the final decision about a bishop’s removal from office — will now be assisted by a papally appointed “college of jurists,” according to procedures that take effect Sept. 5.
In an apostolic letter given “motu proprio” (on his own initiative), dated June 4, the Pope reaffirmed that bishops of a diocese or eparchy and those responsible for other kinds of particular churches can be “legitimately removed” for negligence.
In order for it to be grounds for removal, such negligence — either through omission or commission — will have had to cause “serious harm to others,” including individuals or a community, the letter said, and “the harm can be physical, moral, spiritual” or to property.
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