VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has named a fellow Jesuit to be the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor after deciding to move the current one to be the No. 2 on his new sex abuse commission.
The Rev. Robert Geisinger, an American, is currently the top canon lawyer at the Jesuit order’s headquarters in Rome.
He replaces Monsignor Robert Oliver as the “promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which processes all sex abuse cases.
The Vatican said Wednesday that Oliver would be the No. 2 in Francis’ commission to protect children and promote the best practices to combat abuse in the church. The commission, which has been slow to get off the ground, is headed by Oliver’s old boss, the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
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