VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has approved the U.S. bishops' revised norms for dealing with clerical sex abuse, saying it is "fully supportive of the bishops' efforts to combat and prevent such evil."

The formal "recognitio" or decree of recognition, which was widely expected, was signed Dec. 8 by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, making the norms binding on all U.S. bishops and dioceses.

The decree, released Dec. 16 at the Vatican, was accompanied by a letter from Cardinal Re to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cardinal Re said it was essential that the church "punish in a just way those who are guilty of such abominable offenses" and that it give special care to the victims of abuse and their families.

The U.S. bishops, he said, also must "devote every available resource to restoring the public image of the Catholic priesthood as a worthy and noble vocation of generous and often sacrificial service to the people of God."

In June, the bishops' conference adopted a child protection charter and the legal norms, pledging to remove permanently from ministry any priest or deacon who had ever sexually abused a child.

After concerns were raised by the Vatican, a special commission of Vatican officials and U.S. bishops met in October, putting the legislative norms into greater conformity with general church law and stipulating that trials by church tribunals are the ordinary way to permanently remove priests who have sexually abused children.

The U.S. bishops adopted the revised norms in November, and the Vatican approval makes them binding on all dioceses in the United States, including those of the Eastern Catholic churches, and on members of religious orders.

Cardinal Re asked Bishop Gregory to have representatives of the bishops' conference continue meeting with representatives of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men "to examine more closely the various aspects of their particular situation and to forward to the Holy See whatever agreements they may reach."

In August the superiors of men's orders said that in accord with the charter, they would remove permanently from ministry any religious priest who has abused children.

However, while the charter presented laicization of the offending priest as an ordinary response, the religious superiors said that in most cases they would be inclined to keep the man in the religious community under close supervision, rather than ousting him from priesthood and religious life.

But when the norms were revised by the U.S.-Vatican commission, religious-order priests were explicitly included under the bishops' oversight when dealing with allegations of sexual abuse.

Conventual Franciscan Father Canice Connors, president of the U.S. religious conference, and Marist Father Ted Keating, executive director, met with Vatican officials in early December to discuss whether the inclusion of religious orders in the norms violates the orders' traditional autonomy from local bishops.

While asking the bishops and religious orders to discuss the issues involved, Cardinal Re did not indicate any exemptions would be made for members of religious orders.

Cardinal Re told Bishop Gregory, "The universal law of the church has always recognized" the crime of sexual abuse of children "as one of the most serious offenses which sacred ministers can commit and has determined that they be punished with the most severe penalties, not excluding -- if the case so requires -- dismissal from the clerical state."

The cardinal said the U.S. norms, which are more explicit than those found in canon law, "are intended to give effective protection to minors and to establish a rigorous and precise procedure to punish in a just way those who are guilty of such abominable offenses."

In Washington, Bishop Gregory expressed the U.S. bishops' gratitude for the swiftness with which the "recognitio" was granted and said it was a sign of the care the Vatican has always shown in helping the U.S. bishops protect children and young people.

"There is no crime or sin so terrible that it takes the perpetrator beyond the bounds of God's love and mercy," Bishop Gregory said in a statement. "At the same time, sins and crimes can have long-lasting consequences in the lives both of those who commit them and those harmed by them.

"Sexual abuse of minors by clergy is an evil that has had a profound effect on our entire church community. A number of bishops have added to the impact of this scandal by being, too often, negligent in our vigilance and insufficiently urgent in our response. Now all of us bind ourselves by the pledges of the charter and the requirements of the norms to see to it that this cannot happen again," Bishop Gregory said.