Vatican tells bishops to act on sex abuse

VATICAN CITY, May 16 (UPI) -- The Vatican Monday ordered all bishops to draft policies for stopping clerical molestation of minors and to cooperate with civil authorities.

The guidelines are not binding, however, and victims' groups called them inadequate, The New York Times reported.

"Where's the beef?" the Survivors' Network for Those Abused by Priests, an American group, said in a statement. "There's no enforcement here. There are no penalties for bishops who don't come up with guidelines or who violate their own guidelines."

The Vatican pointed out that sexual abuse is "a crime prosecuted by civil law," but said lay investigative panels "cannot substitute" for bishops' authority in judging cases. The directive also does not expand the "zero-tolerance" policies in the United States, under which a priest is removed from ministry during investigations.

"The aim of the document is to provide a common denominator for principles that everyone can bear in mind in making appropriate directives," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. "Each reality is different, culturally and from the point of view of different countries' law."

The move follows an explosion of abuse cases in Europe last year, several years after the U.S. scandal broke.