THE Vatican yesterday gave its approval to the revised US bishops’ policy to combat sex abuse in the clergy, declaring the need to restore the image of the priesthood in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican has rejected parts of the US church’s new sex abuse policy and cautioned American bishops from going ahead with them, sources said today.

Leaders from America’s scandal-scarred Roman Catholic Church will hear out Pope John Paul II and present their own proposals today during an unprecedented discussion on public anger over priestly sexual abuse.