VATICAN: Pope rejects Cardinal’s resignation over abuse cover-up

Pope Francis has turned down a French cardinal’s offer to resign over a Church sex abuse cover-up. Earlier this month, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was found guilty of failing to report historical allegations of assaults by a priest in his diocese. He is appealing against the verdict, but offered to quit as France’s most senior Roman […]

Pope Francis has turned down a French cardinal’s offer to resign over a Church sex abuse cover-up.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was found guilty of failing to report historical allegations of assaults by a priest in his diocese.

He is appealing against the verdict, but offered to quit as France’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric on Monday.

Although the Pope has rejected the resignation, Barbarin said he would stand aside “for a while”.

The 68-year-old archbishop of Lyon was given a six-month suspended prison sentence earlier this month.

At the centre of the accusations is the priest Bernard Preynat, who allegedly assaulted dozens of boy scouts in the 1980s and 1990s.