Religion

Science influences Vatican report

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican will soon publish a report about sexual abuse by clergy that draws heavily on scientific opinion, including experts skeptical about removing from the ministry any priest who has molested a child, a psychologist who helped edit the report said.

The report grew out of a four-day symposium on pedophilia at the Vatican in April.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, a symposium participant, said scientific feedback will help the Vatican focus its policy toward offenders and victims.

During that gathering, church officials listened to and questioned therapists and other clinical experts from the United States, Canada and Germany. Among the issues on the agenda was how molesters might be rehabilitated.

The report is expected to be published in the next few weeks and will be distributed to bishops' conferences worldwide, a Vatican official said Thursday.

"Most of the experts present were not sympathetic" to zero-tolerance policies that call for removing priests from the ministry when credible allegations arise, said psychologist Karl Hanson, who researches sex offenders for the Canadian government. He spoke at the symposium and served as senior editor for the Vatican report.

Many dioceses say they are aggressively pursuing "zero-tolerance" policies after being stung by charges that church hierarchy was trying to protect abusive priests.

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