'One strike and you're out' warning to paedophile priests

The Catholic church in the US is to adopt a ‘‘one-strike-you’re-out’’ policy for paedophile priests involved in future sex abuse case, it was decided in the Vatican today.

But Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington, said there was still some questions about whether a similar tough policy should be applied to cases that occurred in the past and have now come to light.

‘‘I’ve got to pray about that and listen to the lay people,’’ he said at the edge of St Peter’s Square after lunch with the other US cardinals and Pope John Paul.

The cardinals and bishops, who had being summoned to the Vatican by the pope amid a growing sex abuse scandal in the US, were still drafting their final statement, which would be released tonight.

Cardinal McCarrick said there was no doubt about what the pope had intended when he said yesterday ‘‘There is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.’’

The pontiff repeated his positions when he sat down for a lunch of pasta, meat, vegetables and wine with US delegation to day, McCarrick said.

The cardinal also said that the Americans were working toward a nationwide policy for every dioceses. ‘‘This is what the Holy See is expecting.’’

The Vatican lunch came on the second day of an unprecedented summit on the scandal that has shaken the American Church. Using the strongest language yet, the pope laid out the agenda at the outset by decrying abuse both as a sin and a crime.