Two decades of scandals involving Catholic dioceses covering up allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy apparently hasn't made much of an impression on the Vatican. The cover-ups have come close to destroying the Roman Catholic Church.  And yet, a new policy guideline for bishops released this month state that it is “not necessarily” the duty of bishops to report accusations of clerical child abuse and that only victims or their families should make the decision to report abuse to police. Guardian: A document that spells out how senior clergy members ought to deal with allegations of abuse, which was recently released by the Vatican, emphasised that, though they must be aware of local laws, bishops’ only duty was to address such allegations internally. “According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities,...(Read Full Post)