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  Pope Francis says negligent bishops can be recalled

Pope Francis says negligent bishops can be recalled

AFP
Published : Jun 5, 2016, 6:21 am IST
Updated : Jun 5, 2016, 6:21 am IST

Catholic bishops guilty of negligence in respect to child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office, Pope Francis said on Saturday in a move hiking pressure on the Church’s hierarchy.

Pope Francis (Photo: AP)
 Pope Francis (Photo: AP)

Catholic bishops guilty of negligence in respect to child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office, Pope Francis said on Saturday in a move hiking pressure on the Church’s hierarchy.

The move was announced just two weeks after the pope came under fire for meeting a top French cardinal accused of covering up for a paedophile priest in a scandal that has shaken France’s Catholic Church.

The decision, which will also apply to other senior Church officials, was unveiled in a papal decree which said such cases would now fall under existing canon law allowing for prelates to be sacked for “serious reasons”.

“The Church, like a loving mother, loves all her children, but treats and protects with special affection the smallest and most helpless,” the papal decree said. The text stresses the need for “special diligence” in caring for minors, with those who demonstrate negligence in tackling cases of abuse facing the threat of dismissal.