In an opinion that could bolster the legal defence of the Catholic Church in the United States and under-pressure senior clerics in Ireland and elsewhere, a Vatican-sanctioned journal said a bishop in most cases cannot be held responsible for child abuse committed by his priests.
The opinion will appear in tomorrow's edition of the monthly Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica, which is considered extremely authoritative because its articles are approved by the Vatican.
The 12-page article on child sex scandals is a highly technical analysis of canon (church) law as it relates to moral and legal responsibilities of bishops and other superiors of priests caught up in cases of child sex abuse.
The article comes as pressure on the former Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comisky continues over his treatment of the paedophile priest, Fr Sean Fortune. Cardinal Desmond Connell has also come in for severe criticism over his handling of the affair.
"From the standpoint of canon law, a bishop or superior cannot be held morally or juridically responsible for criminal acts committed by one of their priests," the article said.
It said that while a priest was a subordinate of the bishop or religious superior, the church could not be compared to a corporation.
"It should be very clear that this relationship can in no way be compared to the relationship between an employer and an employee, where the employer is responsible to third parties for the behaviour of the employee," it said.
The article said a bishop bore only a certain amount of responsibility in cases where no action was taken against the priest even though there was a moral certainty of the foundations of accusations made against the priest .
It did not specify what was meant by a certain amount of responsibility.
The article is significant because lawyers in the United States defending senior clerics are expected to draw the distinction between church law and civil law.
The scandal in the United States, which was the subject of a crisis meeting between Pope John Paul and American cardinals last month, shows little signs of abating.
Two more cardinals have been caught up in it, a priest who had been accused of abusing minors years ago committed suicide this week and another was shot by a man claiming to be one of his victims.
In Boston, where the scandal was first uncovered, court files have shown that Cardinal Bernard Law knew about sexual abuse in his diocese but allowed priests to continue working.