Vatican policy

The Vatican last week responded to allegations that it has long and systematically concealed clerical sex abuse by making clear for the first time that bishops and clerics worldwide should report such crimes to police if the law requires it.

The Vatican insisted that it has long been the Catholic Church's policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil reporting laws. But such an explicit policy had never previously been spelled out.

How can this be seen as anything but foot-dragging taken to an astonishing extreme? Observers would have to be naive not to wonder what the church is still protecting.

"Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed," said the newly posted guideline. That phrase was not included in a draft of the document obtained earlier by The Associated Press. The Vatican offered no explanation for the addition.

But Pope Benedict XVI -- who had responsibility to deal with such problems in Germany before he was elected pope, and has been criticized for inaction there -- has come under increasing pressure to show that the Vatican is serious about confronting clerical abuse and cracking down on church officials who let it go on virtually unchecked for decades.

"While the Vatican never told bishops they could not report abuse to the police, this is the first time the Vatican has been so clear on the responsibility to follow civil law concerning reporting of crimes," explains the Rev. Thomas Reese, of Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center.

They needed to be told?

Victims were not impressed by Monday's action. "One sentence can't immediately reverse centuries of self-serving secrecy," said Joelle Casteix, Western regional director for SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, the main victims' group in the United States.

The document falls far short of the policy approved by the Vatican as church law in the United States, which bars credibly accused priests from any public church work while the allegations are investigated, while clergy found guilty are permanently barred from public ministry and, in some cases, ousted from the priesthood.

That which is old and traditional is not necessarily to be thrown over in haste. But patience has its limits, and respect must be earned. The church is starting to look like an aged and cracking dam, attempting to hold back the waters of overdue change.