Paedophile priests face zero tolerance

Bernard Law: Under pressure to resign

Clergy who sexually assault children should be barred from their work, the embattled Roman Catholic cardinal in Boston has been told.

A panel set up by Cardinal Bernard Law, who is under fire for reassigning paedophile priests, recommended the zero tolerance approach.

The move came after the Roman Catholic Church in New York on Friday announced it would report immediately accusations against members of the clergy to the civil authorities - even before it started its own internal investigation.

Cardinal Law has repeatedly declined to step down

The archdiocese discarded guidelines adopted last month calling for a review board to examine each case before notifying prosecutors.

Cardinal Law is under pressure to resign over his handling of sex abuse cases, sparked by the case of convicted paedophile priest John Geoghan.

Court documents show that Cardinal Law and others in the archdiocese knew Geoghan was a paedophile, but allowed him to stay on as a priest.

Since the Geoghan case, priests in nearly a dozen US dioceses have been suspended or resigned and a bishop in Florida has quit.

Senior church leaders have been forced to apologise as the scope of the scandal has become apparent.

The controversy has spread overseas, with bishops in Ireland and Poland resigning, and has sent shockwaves all the way to the Vatican.

Children's safety

Last month US cardinals were called to an extraordinary meeting in Rome to discuss the scandal.

Next month they are due to gather in Dallas to set standards for how dioceses should handle paedophile priests.

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic cardinal in Los Angeles has been warned that unless he reveals allegations of child sex abuse by priests, he faces legal action.

The church authorities later said they would co-operate with the LA District Attorney.

"The safety and protection of all our children is a goal that the archdiocese shares with the district attorney," a statement said.

In Baltimore, the Roman Catholic Cardinal William Keeler apologised for the first time to victims of church sex abuse, including a man who shot and wounded a local priest he says molested him as a teenager.

Dontee Stokes, now 26, shot Rev Maurice Blackwell outside the priest's home on Monday and is now charged with attempted murder.