LA bishop resigns 13 years after church learned of sex claim

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Los Angeles auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Alexander Salazar, following an allegation of sexual misconduct with a child in the 1990s, officials said today.

The Vatican announced the resignation in a one-line statement. It was the latest in a string of misconduct allegations against bishops to come to light this year, following the scandal of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington that exposed how bishops have largely avoided sanction for improper behavior.

Pasadena police recommended in 2002 that Salazar be charged with committing a lewd act on a child, but prosecutors in Los Angeles County declined to bring charges. A district attorney's spokesman, Ricardo Santiago, could not provide more information on the allegation or why charges were not filed.

The current archbishop of Los Angeles, the Most Rev. Jose Gomez, said the archdiocese learned of the claim in 2005. Gomez said the archdiocese forwarded the complaint to the Vatican office handling sex abuse cases.

Gomez said that office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, imposed precautionary measures against Salazar and that a further investigation by the archdiocese's independent review board found the allegation to be credible.

Gomez said Salazar, 69, has "consistently denied any wrongdoing." The archdiocese said it had received no other allegations against Salazar.