US: At least 177 Catholic priests suspected of child abuse have either resigned or been suspended from duty in 28 states across the US since the recent clerical scandal broke in January, a survey by Associated Press has found.
All but four states have been touched by the scandal with either suspensions or specific action by the Catholic Church to change its procedures, with the highest number of suspensions, 30, in California.
The US cardinals support a "zero-tolerance" policy toward sexual abuse of minors by priests, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia told a weekend fund-raising dinner for Catholic University attended by seven other cardinals.
Meanwhile, local reports suggest Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston has dug himself into deeper trouble with already-angry lay members of his archdiocese by forbidding the convening of a meeting of lay representatives of each of the 300 parishes, suggested by an officer of one parish.
Acting on Cardinal Law's behalf, Bishop Walter Edyvean, has sent a letter invoking canon law to diocesan priests to point out that any parish council remains "exclusively within the parish where it has been established and it is presided over by the pastor of that parish".
Another lay group would be "superfluous and potentially divisive", the letter said.
"I'm shocked," said Mr Jim Muller, president of Voice of the Faithful, one of the many lay groups mushrooming in the diocese. "The divisiveness is going to be in response to the order."
If Catholics cannot meet with the blessing of the archdiocese, they might seek out other venues, Mr Muller said.
The other states with the largest number of suspensions or resignations were: Pennsylvania (23) and Massachusetts and New Hampshire (17 each).
AP says the total of 177 may be low as some dioceses were unwilling to come up with numbers and the agency had to rely on published accounts.
In California and Massachusetts alone, prosecutors and private lawyers said nearly 550 people had made new allegations of abuse this year.
The 177 figure represents a quarter of 1 per cent of the total number of 46,000 priests in the US, or one in 400.
