(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The head of the Catholic Church has authorised creating a tribunal to hear cases of bishops who allegedly hid the sexual abuse of children and protected offending priests.
But Pope Francis has already been criticised for limiting the body's operations under the Church's internal rules.
And as Kristina Kukolja reports, it coincides with new allegations against Australia's Cardinal George Pell, who himself is accused of covering up child abuse and trying to bribe a victim.
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Accusations that the Catholic Church has systemically failed to take meaningful action on decades of claims of child sexual abuse by priests reach to the very top.
They even draw in some of Pope Francis's predecessors.
But the Pontiff, who has symbolically sought forgiveness for the "evil" caused by clerical rape and molestation, has now approved a new Vatican department aimed at changing it.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi made the announcement.
(Translated) "The thing that is new is that a specific procedure is now indicated for these questions that may have to do with a bishop's abuse of office. This certainly was not the case before. And now we have an ordinary and clear path. This is the real new aspect."
Victims have long claimed bishops were rarely sanctioned for alleged negligence or cover ups, even though the practices were believed to be widespread.
Under the new tribunal, bishops accused of such actions would face charges of abuse of their office.
If found guilty of the offence, when it relates to violations against minors and vulnerable adults, canon law reportedly allows for their immediate dismissal.
Radio Vatican reports the new body has been given five years to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the new procedures.
It will also have jurisdiction to examine some of the abuse cases still pending before the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.
That is part of recommendations from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Mary Collins is a member of the commission and a survivor of clerical abuse.
Ms Collins has told the BBC she is pleased the Pope is acting on that particular proposal.
"If a bishop has broken the criminal law in any country, then it's up to the local forces to prosecute them, state forces. And what has happened with this is that bishops who have not gone to the level of breaking the criminal law, but have not properly dealt with cases, have not been sanctioned in any way. And the only way they can be sanctioned is by their superiors, and there has been no sanction up to now. And that is now changing, because what is going to happen now is the Church has set up its own tribunal, which means that there will be accountability, that a bishop who does not properly handle the case of abuse, does not protect a child or protects an abuser, he will have to be answerable now."
But the announcement has not been well received by everyone.
"At best, most Church abuse panels have been ineffective distractions. At worst, they've been manipulative public relations manoeuvres."
That is Barbara Blaine, head of the United States-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, speaking to the ABC.
She says SNAP would have preferred more determined action by Pope Francis.
"The Pope has virtually limitless power. He could have sacked dozens of complicit bishops. However, he has sacked not even one, nor has he even demoted or disciplined or denounced one complicit Catholic official, from cardinals to archbishops and bishops and priests and, you know, even custodians of records. No prelate on the planet has even had the courage to say that a particular bishop is shielding child molesting clerics. And yet, we know it happens across the globe."
The leader of SNAP's Australian chapter, Nicky Davis, goes further, saying the Catholic Church should have acted decades ago when the first allegations of abuse emerged.
Today, she maintains, it is still not doing enough.
"Survivors need the truth, and we need the Church to stop protecting those who have committed crimes and pretending that they are men of integrity or that what they have done is not so bad or it never happened. We need the truth. We need the internal documents. We are not getting those documents. We are getting some documents, but a large number are still being withheld because they're very incriminating. Survivors know that, because we have seen firsthand how much of a cover-up has been going on about the crimes that were committed against us. And the public still doesn't understand that that is a routine part of the Church's operation in this area
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has now heard allegations Cardinal George Pell knew of abuses by the man known as one of Australia's most notorious paedophiles.
A Ballarat, Victoria, hearing was told Cardinal Pell, who now heads the Holy See's economic affairs out of the Vatican, was told of Gerald Ridsdale's offences in the 1970s.
The hearing also heard he tried to bribe one of the victims, a nephew of the former priest.
Cardinal Pell will return to Australia to reappear before the Royal Commission.
Nicky Davis says the Vatican tribunal should investigate him and others in the Australian Catholic Church and institutions more broadly.
"It would be very appropriate for this new office within the Vatican to investigate not just Cardinal Pell but every single bishop and archbishop within the Australian Church. Every single one of them, I believe, has some questions to answer. But the other thing is that this tribunal doesn't make any mention of other office holders within Catholic Church institutions, such as principals of Catholic schools, people within the Catholic education service who apparently had a lot to say about how these crimes were covered up, and, also, heads of religious orders."
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