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of Priest-Child Molestation |
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Compiled by GayToday
Critics of Rome deplored this development, insisting that secret trials would only further protect priest-predators at the expense of their child-victims. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, it has been widely reported, has long allowed a world-wide epidemic of such child molesting to flourish among its clergy unhindered. When priests were named as suspects, the Church has been perceived to have been tardy, wedded to a policy of procrastination and near-non-intervention. The Vatican will now receive, from the far corners of the globe, notice of each allegation of child abuse by non-abstinent members its priesthood.
Most such investigations and trials will continue to take place in local ecclesiastical courts. An appeals court has been set up at the Vatican, however. A Vatican official told the New York Times that the new rulings had been "put into effect by the Holy Father (the Pope) and it is a great sadness for him, you can imagine. He cannot believe these things." |
Vatican City-Secret trials of pedophile priests by Roman Catholic ecclesiastical courts will be overseen by The Vatican, according to new rulings issued here Tuesday.
