Vatican orders US bishops to delay taking action on sexual abuse crisis

By Daniel Burke

The Vatican has told the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to delay voting on measures to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children from sexual abuse, the president of the conference said in a surprise announcement Monday morning.

In announcing the decision to his fellow bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said he was disappointed by the Vatican’s interference, which he said he learned of on Sunday afternoon.

“At the insistence of the Holy See, we will not be voting on the two action items in our docket regarding the abuse crisis,” said DiNardo.

For weeks, the US Catholic bishops have trumpeted a series of reforms they had hoped to make after what one cardinal called the church’s “summer of hell.” Those reforms must be approved by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which gathers the country’s bishops twice a year to debate and adopt new policies.

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