Argentina archbishop says he made mistakes in handling abuse allegations against priest

An Argentine archbishop chosen by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy concedes he made mistakes in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors. The 2019 case has drawn allegations by critics that Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández tried to protect the priest, a charge that he denied this past week. But he was more self-critical Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press. He attributed some of his missteps to church procedures for dealing with allegations of clerical abuse being less clear at the time. Fernández says he should have “treated the victims more closely” and acted earlier in removing Lorenzo from his duties as a priest. The archbishop says "it is clear that I did not act in the best way.”