Bishops, Vatican discussing penalizing bishops in abuse cases

Published: 2006-03-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops and the Vatican are discussing whether disciplinary action should be taken against bishops who moved child-abusing priests from parish to parish, said the head of the U.S. bishops' conference. "It's a matter of dialogue between us and the Holy See," said Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash. The bishop said church officials know more now about child sex abuse than they did several decades ago when most of the abuse took place. At that time an abuser would be sent for therapeutic treatment and would return with assurances that he could exercise his ministry again, Bishop Skylstad told Catholic News Service March 30 following a news conference to present the 2005 audit report on how dioceses are implementing child sex abuse prevention policies. "Now we know differently," he said. Organizations of victims of clergy abuse have often criticized the bishops because their sex abuse prevention policies do not contain disciplinary action against bishops who moved abusive priests around. Under church law, only the pope can discipline a bishop.

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