Monsignor Colagiovanni, now retired, had served as a judge on an important church tribunal, the Roman Rota.

Many dioceses have church tribunals capable of handling just matters like marriage annulments, and not penal cases.

Most of the time, the Vatican would return the cases to the United States for church tribunals.

Last year, the Vatican insisted that priests had the right to due process and to have church tribunals adjudicate their cases.

Priests would be presumed innocent and brought before church tribunals made up of priests trained in canon law.

But to make such a suspension permanent against a priest's will requires a decision by a church tribunal.

In 1968 American church tribunals granted fewer than 600 annulments; in most recent years, they have granted almost 60,000.

Under the new policy, priests accused of abuse would be judged by church tribunals.

"I am a dead man," More tells the church tribunal.

"We cannot surrender to the divorce mentality," the pope said in a speech to the Roman Rota, the church tribunal that hears marriage annulment cases.