The Pope issued a decree on Saturday clarifying that bishops within the chruch can, in fact, be removed for “negligence” when handling cases of sexual abuse by the clergy. That seems pretty self-evident, but apparently it needed to be said. The issue of what qualifies as “negligence” to the Vatican is a far more pressing issue as it tries to combat abuse. The church has faced criticism from all sides for institutionally covering the tracks of abusive priests, often simply reassigning them to new parishes despite repeated instances of wrongdoing. Presumably that would constitute negligence.
Here’s more from the Associated Press on the decree:
In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church’s canonical code already allowed for a bishop to be removed for “grave reasons.” But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, counts as one of those reasons that can cost a bishop his job… The statute effectively does away with a proposal approved by Francis last year to establish an accountability tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis’ sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it already oversees actual sex abuse cases against clergy. But that proposal posed a host of legal and bureaucratic issues. In the end, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the four Vatican offices that already handle bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.
“The main U.S. victims’ group, SNAP, said it was “extraordinarily skeptical” that the new procedures would amount to any wave of dismissals since popes have always had the power to oust bishops but haven’t wielded it,” according to the AP.
