THE VATICAN’S request that the United States bishops delay voting on new accountability procedures for those of their number accused of misconduct and for their handling of abuse cases is being read as blocking vital reform. It is yet another example, many argue, of Rome not getting the urgency of this crisis, and ducking the thorny question of holding the hierarchy accountable. 

Strip away the rhetoric and the understandable frustration, however, and this saga reveals the need for a co-ordinated approach to the clerical sexual abuse scandal along with the careful handling of a fundamental currency of church life: the communion between the Pope and bishops. The US bishops who had gathered in Baltimore this week had been planning to vote on a new code of conduct over how they handle abuse, along with proposals for a lay commission to investigate cases of episcopal misconduct.