Archbishop

continued from B1 administration, over which Francis is the absolute monarch. The pope has final authority over appointing or removing bishops.

Among the proposals of the U.S. bishops is the establishment of a process for investigating complaints against bishops, reported through a third-party compliance hotline, by a national commission of lay people. The bishops also seek national guidelines for the publication of lists of names of clerics facing substantiated abuse claims, and the completion of investigations into McCarrick.

Vincent Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, a Catholic school, said the guidelines proposed by the bishops will have to be reconciled with the church’s cannon law, or else those accused would be able to appeal beyond them.

“I can only assume this is the reason for the Vatican’s last-minute request for delay,” Miller said in an email. “That was extremely poor communication. But I suspect it’s better than having to ask for their revision in February.”

Miller said he saw Schnurr’s letter as “a sincere attempt to communicate that the bishops take this issue seriously, despite the postponement of the vote.”

Schnurr said there are no active cases of clerical abuse of children in the archdiocese, though a Dayton Daily News investigation earlier this year revealed the costs of the decades of abuse still mounts each year, as do the number of allegations.

In fiscal year 2018, which ended in June, allegations were made to the archdiocese against seven priests, all of whom are dead, the newspaper found. Each of those allegations was referred “to the appropriate civil authority,” a spokesman said.

In 2003, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest to criminal charges it failed to report sexual abuse of children by priests.