For decades, the Roman Catholic Church has been embroiled in scandal concerning sexual abuse among its ranks. Although this has sometimes taken the form of abuse against nuns, the most widely-known scandals tend to involve priests molesting children.
As has become more and more apparent as time goes on, these scandals didn't just concern the abuse itself, but also efforts by church officials to keep them under wraps and quietly transfer the priests involved elsewhere.
Although there are many elements to how this abuse was able to occur with virtual impunity for so long, one harmful factor was essentially written into church policy.
However, a recent decision by Pope Francis marks an effort to curb tools that accused abusers can use to protect themselves.
