ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press
February 20, 2019
The Latest on the Vatican summit on dealing with sex abuse of minors (all times local):
5:05 p.m.
A Roman Catholic diocese in northwest Spain has become the country’s first to establish a panel to protect and support local victims of clergy sex abuse.
Bishop of Astorga Juan Antonio Menendez said the panel will include a priest, a psychologist, a lawyer and an abuse survivor.
Menendez said during a Wednesday news conference broadcast on YouTube the move is designed to increase confidence in church institutions.
Menendez also is leading efforts by the Spanish bishops’ conference to improve its procedures for handling sexual abuse cases.
Other Spanish dioceses have taken steps such as stipulating that church officials must inform public prosecutors when they get molestation allegations against priests.
The Spanish bishops’ conference current rules, adopted in 2010, merely require ecclesiastical authorities to recommend that victims take their allegations to the police themselves.
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