ERIE (PA)
Erie Times
February 25, 2019
By Ed Palattella
Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico said he is ready to restart an effort with colleagues to further address the clergy sex-abuse crisis in the United States.
The go-ahead, Persico said, came from Pope Francis, who on Sunday ended an unprecedented Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse by declaring “an all-out battle against the abuse of minors” within the Roman Catholic Church and beyond.
Though abuse victims criticized Francis for failing to propose measures of his own, Persico said the pope gave responsibility for developing new rules to bishops’ groups worldwide, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Vatican frustrated Persico and others this past fall when the Holy See asked the conference to hold off on passing new regulations until Francis held the global meeting on abuse. With that four-day session over, Persico said, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is set to resume its work, with the Vatican to review its proposals later.
“The pope is very clear,” Persico said on Monday. “He wants progress on this. He wants something concrete and he wants effective measures. So I think now this is the green light.”
Persico said he believes the Vatican will be inclined to approve what the American bishops develop, including ways to discipline abusive bishops or bishops who covered up abuse. The final authority for punishing a bishop will remain with the pope, but the new rules are designed to give bishops more of a role in policing themselves.
If the Vatican is slow to approve the American proposals, Persico said, it risks even more of a backlash. Victims and others have advocated for change since the Aug. 14 release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.