Abuse hearings streamlined to relieve increasing logjam at CDF

Pope Francis has drawn up plans to make the appeals process for paedophile priests more efficient, writes Hannah Roberts.

The Holy See announced the creation of a new judicial body within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to consider appeals by priests who have allegedly molested children or committed other serious crimes. The new body will consist of seven cardinals or bishops chosen by the Pope, who will tackle a “backlog” of alleged sex offenders wanting to appeal their cases.

The ordinary members of the Congregation only meet once a month so they were unable to get through the piles of child sex abuse appeals that were gradually mounting up, the Vatican said.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has approved a new handbook on financial transparency. The manual, intended to bring Vatican accounting in line with international standards, was delivered to all departments last week by the Secretariat for the Economy.