VATICAN: US cardinals, their authority battered by child-sex scandals, flew home yesterday after crisis talks at the Vatican.
But their proposals to deal with paedophilia among the clergy failed to include a zero-tolerance policy for all sex offenders, causing disbelief and outrage among former victims of abuse.
The cardinals came up with proposals for a two-track process for dismissing paedophile priests depending on whether they are repeat offenders or not.
"As far as I'm concerned sexual abuse is a crime whether it's carried out on a serial basis or a singular one," Mr John Kelly, founder of the Ireland-based Survivors of Child Abuse group, said.
"I don't see anything of substance from the church apart from another coded message full of smokescreens and mirrors," added Mr Kelly, who said he was abused in an Irish reformatory school in the 1960s.
Pope John Paul, who summoned the cardinals to the Vatican to address the string of scandals, told them on Tuesday he would no longer tolerate paedophile priests.
The cardinals called a news conference at the end of their talks but its 2½-hour delay underscored divisions among them.
"We realise this is going to be tough but we are determined to do it," one of the participants, Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, said before leaving.
The Catholic Church in the US was sent reeling following accusations that senior clergy sheltered paedophile priests, moving known abusers from parish to parish.
Many of the crimes took place decades ago and have been revealed only recently by victims or uncovered by the media.
Despite earlier indications, the cardinals shied away from immediately implementing a zero-tolerance policy for first-time sex offenders, delaying a final decision until they meet again in Dallas in June.
Their statement called for a special process "for the dismissal from the clerical state of a priest who has become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors".
Their other proposal appeared to offer leeway for one-time offenders. It called for "a special process for cases which are not notorious but where the diocesan bishop considers the priest a threat for the protection of children and young people, in order to avoid grave scandal in the future".
Cardinal Keeler said the statement would lead to "effective, permanent action" against paedophiles which would be finalised at the Dallas meeting in June.
But some Catholics want tolerance to end right now.
"This is indeed a tragic result of such an important opportunity for the Pope and the American cardinals to correct the problem of the abuse of power and sexual abuse that plagues the church," said Ms Frances Kissling, president of the US dissident group, Catholics for a Free Choice. "It is shocking that our most high-ranking leaders cannot even agree that a priest who even once abuses a child must leave the priesthood," she said.
Mr Rodney Ford, whose son was abused by a Catholic priest when he was aged six, said it was insulting there had been no mention of the victims.
Bishop Wilton Gregory of Baltimore, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the issue of whether someone accused in the past could remain in the active ministry at all would be "one of the hotly debated questions" in June. "What we hope to put together is a procedure that is clear, specific and air-tight, but we cannot dispense with a priest's right to appeal to the Holy See."
In an act of contrition, the cardinals also proposed a national day of prayer and reparation in the US for offences committed by paedophile priests.