Pope Francis has announced new procedures for the disciplining and dismissal of bishops who failed to protect children from being sexually abused by clergy. Although technically they could have been investigated under existing church legislation, the lack of precision about the offence and the clumsiness and slowness of the process were crying out for reform. There is apparently no known case of a bishop being dismissed for negligence in such matters, though a few have resigned.
The lack of an effective remedy when bishops fail in their duty has been a scandal, aggravated when the Church had known for some time what had happened and whose fault it was. For instance Pope Benedict, in his pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland 10 years ago, said “grave errors of judgement were made and failures of leadership occurred” by Irish bishops. They had undermined their “credibility and effectiveness”.
09 June 2016, The Tablet
Demon of cover-up must be exorcised
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