Vatican revises its rules on clerical sex abuse

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Vatican revises its rules on clerical sex abuse

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 15, 4:22 pm ET
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican revised its in-house rules to deal with clerical sex abuse cases Thursday, targeting priests who molest the mentally disabled as well as children and doubling the statute of limitations for such crimes.

Abuse victims said the rules are little more than administrative housekeeping since they made few substantive changes to current practice, and what is needed are bold new rules to punish bishops who shield pedophiles.

Women's ordination groups criticized the new rules because they included the attempted ordination of women as a "grave crime" subject to the same set of procedures and punishments meted out for sex abuse.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse