New Vatican edict on issue of abuse draws skepticism

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican told bishops around the world Monday that it was important to cooperate with police in reporting priests accused of molesting children and to develop guidelines by next May for preventing sex abuse.

But the letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith makes no provision to ensure bishops follow the guidelines, and victims' groups denounced the recommendations as "dangerously flawed" because they stress the exclusive authority of bishops to determine the credibility of abuse allegations.

The letter was significant in that it marked a directive to all the world's bishops to establish "clear and coordinated procedures" with superiors of religious orders to deal with pedophiles and care for their victims and for highlighting that it is "important" for bishops to cooperate with police in investigating abuse allegations and follow civil reporting laws where they exist.

Critically, however, the letter says independent lay review boards created in some countries to oversee the church's child protection policies "cannot substitute" for bishops' judgment.

"There's nothing that will make a child safer today or tomorrow or next month or next year," Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the U.S. victims group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said of the letter.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the document's emphasis on the central authority of bishops wasn't a negative commentary on the role of lay review boards but rather a reminder of the "great responsibility" bishops have in dealing with abuse cases as heads of their dioceses.

The sex-abuse guidelines of the U.S. bishops were called into question after a Philadelphia grand jury this year indicted a high-ranking church official on child-endangerment charges for allegedly transferring what it termed predator priests. Four codefendants - two priests, a former priest, and a former Catholic schoolteacher - are charged with raping children.

Last week, the head of the Philadelphia Archdiocese's lay review board accused Philadelphia's archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, and his bishops of having "failed miserably at being open and transparent" and said that most cases had been kept from the board.