Pope's sex abuse commission says bishops must report abuse

Pope Francis' top adviser on
clerical sex abuse says bishops have a "moral and
ethical responsibility" to report all cases of suspected
rape, molestation and other abuse to police — even
where local laws don't require it.
A statement released by Boston Cardinal Sean
O'Malley goes beyond the Vatican's current guidelines
for bishops. Those 2010 guidelines say bishops and
superiors must report suspected cases where civil
reporting laws require it.
O'Malley, who heads the pope's abuse advisory
commission, issued the statement after a recent
course for new Catholic bishops on handling abuse
cases featured a French monsignor who reportedly said
bishops don't have to report cases. He said it is up to
families and victims to do so.
The failure of bishops to turn suspected and known
pedophiles over to police is one of the main reasons
that the church's abuse scandal grew to the extent it
did, since bishops for decades moved rapists from
parish to parish rather than hand them over to law
enforcement.
In the statement, O'Malley and members of the
commission affirmed that civil reporting laws must be
followed. But they stressed that "even beyond these
civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical
responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil
authorities who are charged with protecting our
society."
O'Malley's statement was issued as Pope Francis
continued his five-day visit to Mexico.
Despite calls from victims groups, the Vatican has said
Francis has no plans to meet with Mexican survivors of
abuse. Mexico's most notorious case involved the
disgraced founder of the Legion of Christ religious
order, who raped his seminarians and fathered three
children.