“We all know that canon law has to be changed so that it stops protecting the priesthood of ordained men over the lives of children," Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told reporters.

Daily news and analysis of the historic gathering of bishops from 130 countries for a summit on the protection of children

Arturo Sosa, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus, today made public the four main reference points that are to guide the life and work of the Jesuits over the next 10 years.

St. John Paul II had suspended Father Cardenal and several other priests from active ministry in 1985 for joining the Marxist-influenced Sandinista government. Father Cardenal resigned from the Sandinista Front in 1994.

Pope Francis has recognized the dismissal from the clerical state, also known as laicization, of Theodore McCarrick, 88, the former cardinal and emeritus archbishop of Washington.

This month’s summit meeting in Rome is a signal that Pope Francis intends to address the abuse crisis in a mode of collegiality, looking at people rather than structures.