Vatican requires clergymen to report crimes of abuse to police

by Lannie Walker

GUAM - 

The Vatican will require bishops and other high ranking clerics to report crimes of sexual abuse to police if required by law, this according the Associated Press.

Joelle Castiex, Western regional director for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP,responds to the news.

"Let's keep this in perspective: it's one sentence and it's virtually nothing
unless and until we see tangible signs that bishops are responding. One
sentence can't immediately reverse centuries of self-serving secrecy."

Castiex continues, "Vatican truly wants to change course, it would be far more effective to fire or demote bishops who have clearly endangered kids and enabled abuse and hid crimes, than to add one sentence to a policy that is rarely followed with consistency."

Castiex has visited Guam twice in the last several months and has written three letters to Archbishop Anthony Apuron requesting transparency regarding priests on Guam who have been defrocked.

SNAP is the world's largest and oldest support group for clergy abuse victims. Established over twenty years ago, the support group has more than nine thousand members across the country.