VATICAN CITY - The Vatican rejected the U.S. Church's new sexual abuse policy Friday, saying the sweeping zero-tolerance crackdown needed to be revised because elements conflict with universal Church law.
While supporting the U.S. bishops' efforts to stamp out clergy abuse, the Vatican said the policy contained provisions that were "difficult to reconcile" with church law, were difficult to interpret and left open procedural questions that needed to be resolved.
"For these reasons it has been judged appropriate that before the 'recognitio' (Vatican approval) can be granted, a further reflection on and revision of the `Norms' and the `Charter' are necessary," the Vatican response said.
The response, signed by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation for Bishops, proposed the creation of a joint U.S.-Vatican commission to revise the policy.
The U.S. bishops adopted the plan in June in response to enormous pressure that they take a tough stance against abusive clergy and stem the scandal that has shaken many American Catholics' faith in the church leadership.
Victims of clerical abuse said the Vatican response showed the Church was still resisting reform. Church observers, though said it showed the Vatican was trying to find a middle ground.
In a letter released with Re's response, Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was "happy to accept" the proposal for a mixed commission to "reflect further on and consider revision" of some of the norms.
Later, at a news conference in Rome, Gregory said he expected the commission would wrap up its work by next month in time for a U.S. bishops' conference.
He said he wasn't surprised or disappointed by the Vatican response, and said the short time frame proposed for the revisions indicated that "we're dealing with basically a sound document that needs modification rather than recasting."
Asked whether the more problematic elements of the policy would survive the review process, Gregory said he understood from Vatican officials involved that "Nothing has been ruled out."
He also was asked if the Vatican's response would compel bishops already implementing the procedures to stop. "Will they stop? No. And the mixed commission has not asked the bishops to stop pursuing the charter," Gregory said.
"It simply says let us sit down and talk together about issues that need to be clarified or modified so that `recognitio' can be granted to the norms," Gregory added.
The Vatican letter gave no specifics of the provisions that it found troubling. Gregory though said they covered issues such as the policy's broad definition of sexual abuse, the procedures to deal with abusive priests, and the role of lay review boards.
Among other things, the U.S. policy requires dioceses to remove priests from church work once a "credible" allegation is made and, in some instances, from the priesthood itself.
The policy essentially rules out the possibility that a priest can be rehabilitated, saying an offender will be relieved of his ministry for "even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor — past, present or future."
Ever since it was adopted, Vatican officials and American church law experts have said the norms might violate church law because they would deprive accused priests of their due process rights.
One of the Vatican cardinals who reviewed the policy stressed the special relationship between bishops and their priests in explaining the Vatican response.
"The trust of the priest-son in the bishop cannot pass through outside conditioning such as the laws of a state wherever it might be," said Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
Speaking at a news conference unrelated to the U.S. proposals, the cardinal gave an insight into the Vatican's thinking on how to work things out: "Formulas have to be found which on the one hand are a strong and clear answer to such a serious crime — one of the most serious crimes — but at the same time do not go against the fundamental principles of the Church."
"A law cannot cancel 30-40 years of an honest life," he said.
By Thursday, it had become clear that the Vatican would withhold formal approval of the policy. But Church experts had said they thought the Vatican would at least allow the bishops to implement the policy with caution.
A senior Vatican official had said last month that the Americans would be allowed to go ahead on an experimental basis, despite the misgivings. This was not addressed in the Vatican response, but Gregory said he didn't see it as a mandate to freeze implementation of the norms now.
Most American diocese have already begun implementing the procedures.
A senior Vatican official said Friday that it was clear that those norms that conflict with church law regarding the due process rights of priests "must be dropped."
In its response, the Vatican said it fully supported the bishops' efforts to "respond firmly" to the scandal and acknowledged their attempt to protect minors and restore the trust of the faithful in the Church.
However, it said the application of the procedures "can be the source of confusion and ambiguity because the 'Norms' and 'Charter' contain provisions which in some aspects are difficult to reconcile with the universal law of the Church."
"Moreover, the experience of the last few months has shown that the terminology of these documents is as times vague or imprecise and therefore difficult to interpret."
"Questions also remain concerning the concrete manner in which the procedures outlined in the 'Norms' and 'Charter' are to be applied in conjunction with the requirements of the Code of Canon Law," the response continued.
At least 300 of the 46,000 priests in the United States have been removed from their ministries since the church scandal erupted in January with the case of a priest in Boston who was reassigned even after allegations of molestation reached his superiors.
Since then, waves of accusations have poured in, and many reports have alleged that church leaders tried to cover up wrongdoing by moving known offenders from parish to parish.
Victims' groups in the United States were outraged with the Vatican response.
Mike Emerton, a spokesman for the lay reform movement Voice of the Faithful, which claims 25,000 members, questioned why more discussions were needed since the Vatican had four months to review the bishops' policy.
"It gives the bishops the ability to pick and choose only those portions they feel they would like to implement within their own dioceses This is not something we were looking for," Emerton said.
Yet Russell Shaw, a former spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Knights of Columbus, urged American Catholics to recognize the difficulties of implementing a plan that was fair to both victims and clergy.
"This is not the end of the game," Shaw said.