US bishop in sex scandal resigns

The sexual abuse scandal tearing at the foundations of the American Roman Catholic church brought down another bishop yesterday, less than 48 hours before senior US clergy were due to consider a new "zero tolerance" policy against priests who molest children.

The Vatican announced yesterday morning that the Pope had accepted the resignation of Bishop Kendrick Williams of Lexington, Kentucky, who has been accused of abusing an altar boy in 1981 and two other boys during the 1980s.

He had been on voluntary leave and the Vatican said he stepped down under church laws which urge priests to resign if "illness or some other grave reason" stops them fulfilling their responsibilities.

The 65-year-old bishop had denied a claim made by a former altar boy, James Bennett, in a lawsuit filed against the archdiocese of Louisville, that he was the "Father Williams" who Mr Bennett says molested him in a Louisville church.

"I do not want my resignation to give any credence to the allegations made against me," the outgoing bishop said in a statement yesterday. "I offered my resignation to the Holy Father, stating that I believe that by my stepping down, the diocese can rid itself of the cloud which hangs over it and me at this time."

The archdiocese faces 86 more lawsuits accusing priests of sexual abuse of children.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops begins a meeting in Dallas tomorrow to consider proposals requiring the defrocking of any priest with more than one incident of abuse in his past.

The Kentucky resignation follows those of Rembert Weakland, Archbishop of Milwaukee, and Anthony O'Connell, Bishop of Palm Beach. The bishop had admitted abusing a seminary student, while the arch- bishop acknowledged paying $450,000 (£308,000) to settle a claim against him, though the Vatican gave age as the reason for his departure.

Meanwhile, in New York the Bishop of Brooklyn, Thomas Daily, was questioned over decisions he took as a Boston church official about the career of John Geoghan, the former priest shuttled around city parishes despite many claims of abuse against him - and whose conviction started the current crisis.