ROME (AP) 鈥 Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to expand its zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002 to the rest of the world, arguing that children everywhere should be protected from predator priests.
, adopted at the height of the abuse scandal there, say a priest will be permanently removed from church ministry based on even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established under church law.
That 鈥渙ne strike and you鈥檙e out鈥 policy in the U.S. has long stood out as the toughest in the church. It is held up by some as the gold standard, by others as excessive and by still others as imperfect but better than most. It was adopted by U.S. bishops as they scrambled to try to regain credibility following the revelations of abuse and cover-up in Boston documented by the Boston Globe鈥檚 鈥淪potlight鈥 series.
Since then, the church abuse scandal has erupted globally, and survivors from around the world said Monday there鈥檚 no reason why the U.S. norms couldn鈥檛 and shouldn鈥檛 be applied universally. They called for changes in the and reasoned they could be approved since the Holy See already approved the norms for the U.S. church.
鈥淒espite Pope Francis鈥 repeated calls for zero tolerance on abuse, his words have yet to lead to any real action,鈥 said Gemma Hickey, a transgender survivor of abuse and the president of the global survivor network Ending Clergy Abuse.
The proposal launched at a press conference was hammered out during an unusual meeting in June in Rome between survivors and some of the Catholic hierarchy's top priestly experts on preventing abuse. It was described by participants at the time as a 鈥渉istoric collaboration鈥 between two groups that often talk past one another, given victims' deep distrust of the Catholic hierarchy.
The priestly participants in that meeting included the Rev. Hans Zollner, who heads the church鈥檚 main academic think tank on safeguarding; the No. 2 at the Vatican鈥檚 , Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera; and the Gregorian University鈥檚 canon law dean, the Rev. Ulrich Rhode as well as diplomats from the U.S., Australian and other embassies.
However, there was apparently no one from the Vatican legal office, secretariat of state or the discipline section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which processes all abuse cases worldwide and largely sets policy on applying the church鈥檚 canon law 鈥 albeit in secret since its cases are never published.
As a result, it was unclear what would become of the proposed policy changes, given the U.S. norms only came about because U.S. bishops pushed the Vatican to approve them, driven by their outraged flocks and insurance companies.
Nicholas Cafardi, a U.S. canon lawyer who was an original member of the U.S. 好色tv Review Board that provided input to the 2002 U.S. norms, said globalizing that policy into universal church law 鈥渨ould be one of the logical next steps鈥 for Francis to take to continue the fight against abuse.
But Cafardi, author of 鈥淏efore Dallas,鈥 about the lead-up to the 2002 Dallas bishops' meeting that approved the norms, said that some bishops today bristle at how the policy limits their authority and freedom. And in a telephone interview, he noted that even in the U.S., the norms are only still in place because the U.S. bishops keep formally asking to keep them, which he acknowledged was a 鈥渨eakness鈥 in the system.
鈥淚t seems to me that a good protection would be 鈥楲et鈥檚 just make it universal law,鈥欌 said Cafardi. 鈥淥nce you have that law, you don鈥檛 have to worry about the bishops asking for it in country after country. It鈥檚 just the law."
However, the proposal faces an uphill battle since the Vatican in recent years has repeatedly insisted on 鈥減roportionality鈥 in its sentences for abuse, refusing to apply a one-size-fits-all approach and taking into account cultural differences in countries where abuse isn't as openly discussed as it is in the West.
That has resulted in seemingly light punishments for even confirmed cases of abuse which, in the U.S., would have resulted in a priest being permanently removed from ministry.
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