clergy sex abuse Pope scraps tribunal

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis on Saturday scrapped his proposed tribunal to prosecute bishops who covered up for pedophile priests and instead laid out legal procedures to remove them if the Vatican finds they were negligent.

The new procedures sought to answer long-standing demands by survivors of abuse that the Vatican hold bishops accountable for botching abuse cases. Victims long have accused bishops of covering up for pedophiles, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police – and suffering no consequences.

But the new law was criticized immediately by survivors of abuse as essentially window dressing since there already were ways to investigate and dismiss bishops for wrongdoing – they just were rarely used against bishops who failed to protect their flocks from pedophiles.

“We’re extraordinariily skeptical,” said David Clohessy of the main U.S. survivor’s group known as SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).