Most episcopal conferences now have sex-abuse guidelines, Vatican official reports

About half of the world’s episcopal conferences have established policies for handling abuse problems, the Vatican top’s sex-abuse prosecutor told the Italian monthly Jesus. 

Msgr. Charles Scicluna said that while African nations have lagged behind—because of other urgent problems facing the bishops there—most episcopal conferences in other parts of the world have submitted their new guidelines to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). 

The CDF will review the policies later this year. 

The Vatican had asked all episcopal conferences to prepare and submit guidelines which would govern the handling of sex-abuse complaints and set up methods of preventing abuse. 

The policies are to ensure compliance with both the canon law of the Church and the local laws of the various nations.