Pope Francis has temporarily suspended efforts by the United States bishops to address the scandal of clerical sex abuse, ordering them to wait until he can meet with them in February together with the presidents of other national bishops’ conferences from around the world.
The U.S. bishops are currently gathered in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting, which was to focus on the sex abuse crisis. In the opening meeting Monday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the conference, informed the bishops he had been contacted by the Vatican not to move forward with a vote on measures to respond to the crisis.
The Pope reportedly wants the whole Church to move together rather than having the bishops’ conferences make its own policies.