Cardinal: Pope will extend discipline plan

VATICAN CITY – The new pope, Benedict XVI, indicated he will preserve a U.S. church law that gives bishops broader power to discipline sexually abusive priests, Chicago Cardinal Francis George said Wednesday.

The policy, adopted nearly three years ago, was under Vatican review when Pope John Paul II died. Advocates for victims worried it would be weakened.

But George said he had spoken about the policy with former German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger a few days before his election as pope.

George said he stressed to Ratzinger the need to maintain those new powers, which allow bishops to bar guilty clerics from church work without going through the lengthy Vatican process of ousting the man from the priesthood.

George said that when he kissed the new pope’s hand in Tuesday’s conclave, Benedict recalled their earlier talk.

“He remembered our conversation and said he would attend to that, so he immediately zeroed in on our conversation,” said George, who helped develop the church law. Asked if he believed that the pope would extend the policy, George said: “Based on that conversation, I believe that he will.”

The church law was due to expire March 1. But two days before John Paul died, the U.S. bishops announced that the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops had temporarily extended it. Ratzinger has been deeply involved in the Vatican’s response to the abuse crisis. The Vatican agency he led for 24 years, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, last year was given authority to review abuse claims against priests.