An unholy delay

Faced with a new wave of sex abuse scandals, the Vatican is falling back on its preferred method of damage control: dodge and delay. It’s quashing a move by U.S. bishops to set up a disciplinary and complaint process in favor of promised action next year.

Once again, church leaders and those in the pews must wonder if Pope Francis and his inner circle are serious about reform. Instead, Rome may be more concerned about keeping control over Catholic leaders seeking answers to a demoralizing issue that seemingly spreads without end.

This week a gathering of bishops in Baltimore was on the verge of approving a string of measures to curb sex abuse by clergy, a decades-old issue made worse by recent disclosures. A grand jury report in Pennsylvania in August found that more than 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children with offenders quietly retired. Washington, D.C., Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was demoted after accusations he molested a seminarian in an instance that carried overtones of a cover-up and high-placed connections.

These scandals plus years of others spread across the country, including the Bay Area, were the backdrop for this week’s proposed actions. But at the last minute the Vatican sent word that it would reserve any decision for a global meeting in February in Rome. There would be no opportunity for motivated and troubled U.S. church leaders to take steps of their own.

The pope’s words promise a house cleaning and he’s offered heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the reported abuse in Pennsylvania. But he has yet to take the institutional steps that would prevent a recurrence and show that a hidebound bureaucracy is serious about reform.