Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002, arguing that there's no reason why children around the world shouldn't be kept just as safe from predator priests.
The U.S. norms , adopted at the height of the abuse scandal there, say a priest will be permanently removed from church ministry based on even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established under church law.
That "one strike and you're out" policy in the U.S. has long stood out as the toughest in the church. It is held up by some as the gold standard, by others as excessive and by still others as imperfect but better than most. It was adopted by U.S. bishops as they scrambled to try to retain credibility following the revelations of abuse and cover-up in Boston documented by the Boston Globe's "Spotlight" series.
Since then, the church abuse scandal has erupted globally, and survivors from around the world said Monday there's no reason why the U.S. norms couldn't and shouldn't be applied universally. They called for changes in the church's in-house canon law and reasoned they could be approved since the Holy See approved the norms for the U.S. church.
"Despite Pope Francis' repeated calls for zero tolerance on abuse, his words have yet to lead to any real action," said Gemma Hickey, a transgender survivor of abuse and the president of the global survivor network Ending Clergy Abuse.
