PARIS (Reuters) - When Catholic bishops discover one of their priests is sexually abusing children, some turn to police, some seek out psychiatrists and some quietly sweep the problem under the carpet.
Bishops from the United States, where pedophilia scandals made front page news this year and have led to at least 300 dismissals of priests, are at the Vatican in Rome this week discussing how hard they should crack down on wayward clerics.
If a look around Europe -- the traditional heartland of Roman Catholicism -- is anything to go by, the Church is nowhere near as universal in its approach as its centralized hierarchy and power structure seem to suggest.
The tough stand the U.S. bishops took at a June meeting in Dallas -- immediate suspension once accused of abuse and prompt reporting to the police -- goes beyond any guidelines drawn up in Europe and will probably not win full Vatican approval.
"I think the American bishops, perhaps because the American Catholics are more demanding, are being more forthright," said Dublin journalist Alison O'Connor, author of a book about an Irish priest who committed suicide in 1999 while awaiting trial on 66 charges of rape and molestation.
The American guidelines, drawn up under intense pressure from victims and the media, also go far beyond the hush-hush secret Church trials for child-abusing priests that the Vatican itself suggested in a little-publicized memo in Latin in 2001.
NO LONGER SO CATHOLIC IRELAND
Ireland, for centuries one of the most pious of Catholic societies, probably comes closest to the United States in the depth and breath of scandal priestly pedophilia has caused.
The uproar over favors for an abusive priest helped bring down a Dublin government in 1994. A leading bishop, Brendan Comiskey, had to quit early this year after covering up for Father Sean Fortune, the subject of O'Connor's book.
"There have been cases in almost every area and with such frequency that almost everyone knows of some case," she said.
In 1996, the church made it mandatory to report to police any suspicion of sex abuse by a priest. Early this year, it agreed to pay $112 million in compensation to some 3,000 victims of abuse in 18 Catholic institutions.
About 40 priests and brothers have been convicted of sex abuse crimes and the once all-powerful church has seen the faithful desert pews at Sunday Mass and mock priests and nuns.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales has gone so far as to name an agnostic single mother last January to head a new office to protect children against sexual abuse by the clergy.
The church decided to tighten its guidelines after its leader, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, admitted he had once covered up for a priest later convicted in nine sex cases.
An independent panel tightening church guidelines called in 2001 for police checks on all clergy and even glass doors for confessionals. Some 21 priests have been convicted of child abuse in England and Wales between 1995 and 1999.
PUTTING ON AN "AMERICAN SHOE"
Only last June, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of Germany's Catholics, rejected suggestions he should take a tough line like his scandal-plagued U.S. counterparts. "Why should I wear the Americans' shoe if it doesn't fit me?" he asked.
Within weeks, press revelations of clerical pedophilia prompted church officials to admit to at least 47 cases of abuse. One bishop estimated the real number around 300 cases.
The bishops promptly drew up new guidelines last month calling for increased vigilance and psychological help but leave open the issue of informing police about a case of child abuse.
France moved more promptly to order all cases to be reported to the police, saying in 2000: "Priests guilty of pedophile acts should answer for them before justice authorities."
The French bishops had good reason to respond. About 30 priests have been convicted of child abuse there over the past 10 years and one bishop, Pierre Pican in Bayeux, was convicted of reassigning a known pedophile later jailed for raping a boy.
Belgium's church is drawing up new guidelines after receiving 46 complaints of sexual abuse from men and women.
REMARKABLE CONTRAST
By contrast, the issue hardly comes up in several other countries with long Catholic heritages, raising suspicion that old habits of secrecy and respect for the clergy still prevail.
Italy has no guidelines for dealing with child abusers even though at least seven priests are in prison for pedophilia.
"The problem is still being swept under the carpet and kept quiet," said one long-time Vatican observer, who noted the Roman Curia mostly saw pedophilia as "an American problem."
Little is heard in Spain, where a priest was arrested in February for swapping pedophile pictures over the Internet.
In Poland, home of Pope John Paul II, Poznan Archbishop Juliusz Paetz stepped down last February after being accused of molesting seminarians and young priests.
Vienna's Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer became the highest ranking prelate to quit when he resigned in 1995 over charges he had sexually abused a schoolboy 20 years earlier.
When bishops held consultations three years later to patch up the deep divide the scandal caused, the laymen suggested sweeping reforms including married priests, a local voice in naming bishops, toleration of premarital sex and birth control -- all answers this conservative Church did not want to hear.