POPE Francis yesterday approved an unprecedented Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent sexual abuse of minors, but one victims’ group branded the move “too little, too late”.
A statement said the tribunal would come under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal arm, “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors”.
Victims’ groups have for years been urging the Vatican to establish clear procedures to make bishops more accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters the bishops could also be judged if they had failed to take measures to prevent sexual abuse of minors.
The complaints against the bishops would initially be investigated by one of three Vatican departments, before being judged by the doctrinal tribunal.
The US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the Pope should have gone much further. “[The Pope] could have sacked dozens of complicit bishops. He has, however, sacked no one,” SNAP said in a statement.
Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, an independent group that helps tackle the issue in the Catholic Church, cautiously welcomed the announcement.
“For the first time there may be a clear road map for disciplining bishops who conceal or enable child sexual abuse. But the path already promises to be bumpy. How can the Vatican discipline enablers when its own top ranks are occupied by them?”
The worldwide scandal has seen known abusers shunted to other parishes instead of being defrocked and handed over to authorities.
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