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Journalism of Courage
The Vatican has told bishops around the world to cooperate with police in reporting priests who rape and molest children and to develop guidelines for preventing abuse by May 2012.
But the suggestions in the letter Monday from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are vague and non-binding and fall short of recommending the tough U.S. norms that bar a credibly accused priest from ministry while his case is investigated.
And the letter reinforces bishops’ authority in dealing with abuse cases. Recently,independent lay review boards in the U.S. and Ireland have reported that some bishops ”failed miserably” in following their own guidelines and had thwarted the boards’ work by withholding information and enacting legal hurdles.
