Vatican and US clergy in rift on abuse

The Vatican and the US Catholic Church were yesterday trying to paper over a rift after the Holy See rejected proposals for dealing with the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked America over the past 12 months.

While the Vatican supported US bishops' efforts to stamp out abuse by members of the clergy, it added that plans adopted this summer contained too many provisions that were "difficult to reconcile" with Church law. In particular, it said priests could be deprived of their right to due process.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which adopted the zero-tolerance policy after its annual meeting in Dallas last June, said yesterday that a joint commission had been set up whereby its members and Vatican officials would try to iron out differences.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the Conference, said he was happy to accept the proposal for a mixed commission to "reflect further" onsome proposals.

Asked whether the more problematic elements of the policy would survive the review process, Bishop Gregory said he understood from Vatican officials that "nothing has been ruled out".

A spokesman for the Conference, based in Washington, added that the Vatican's rejection did not act as a veto of the proposals and that most bishops would continue to enforce most of the new code.

But critics said the Vatican's response showed the Church was still trying to resist reform.

Mike Emerton, a spokesman for the lay reform movement Voice of the Faithful, questioned the need for further discussions, since the Vatican had had four months to review the bishops' policy. "It gives the bishops the ability to pick and choose only those portions they feel they would like to implement within their own dioceses. This is not something we were looking for," he said.

The zero-tolerance policy, which involves removing priests who have carried out abuse from their ministries, was proposed after the scandal broke last year with allegations about a priest in Boston, who was reassigned even after accusations of molestation reached his superiors.

At least 300 of the 46,000 priests in the US have been removed from their ministries since then, following a wave of further accusations.