Bishop accused of aiding alleged paedophile resigns

POPE Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a US bishop accused of allowing an alleged paedophile priest from his diocese to flee to Mexico before alerting police to the situation.

Bishop Daniel Walsh of the diocese of Santa Rosa in California resigned under an article in Catholic Church law invoking a “grave cause”, which can include a failure by the prelate in question to denounce a case of paedophilia.

Walsh, 74, is one year younger than the minimum retirement age for bishops.