The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has renewed its 2002 pledge to oust predator priests, while stopping short of rebuking the Philadelphia Archdiocese over allegations by a recent grand jury that it kept 37 dangerous priests on the job.
The bishops group issued a mildly worded statement yesterday saying that reforms adopted by the group in 2002 over the handling of sex-abuse complaints must not be "derailed."
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of New York, the group's president, did not single out Philadelphia by name in his statement. Instead, he referred to "recent disclosures about the church's response" to sex-abuse complaints.
