The Vatican asked Conference of Bishops to delay vote

The delay on the vote is likely to infuriate American Catholics

The Vatican has angered many Catholics by urging American bishops to delay voting on two proposals relating to the child sex abuse crisis scheduled for discussion at their annual meeting this week.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), announced Monday morning during the organization’s annual fall assembly in Baltimore that the Vatican had asked them to delay votes on two scheduled proposals involving the USCCB’s fight against clerical child sex abuse until after a global conference on the subject scheduled to take place at the Vatican in February.

Pope Francis’s handling of the crisis has been widely criticized, with just 53 percent of American Catholics approving of his papacy as of October. Although he issued a 2,000-word apology for the church’s legacy of handling the sex abuse crisis shortly after it began, he has steadfastly refused to comment on Viganò’s allegations against him and has not announced any concrete policy proposals to combat clerical sex abuse — or improve accountability for past crimes — moving forward.