Pope names replacement for France abuse

(ANSA) - Vatican, June 24 - Pope Francis on Monday named a temporary replacement for a French bishop who has gone on leave after being found guilty of covering up sex abuse.
    Mons. Michel Dubost, emeritus bishop of Evry-Crobeil-Essonnes, has been named apostolic administrator of the diocese of Lyon.
    He replaces Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was sentenced to six months in jail for covering up a string of sex-abuse cases in the eastern French city.
    Barbarin recently tendered his resignation but Pope Francis did not accept it.
    Instead, he allowed the cardinal to "retreat for a period of time", as the cardinal also had asked.
    In March Barbarin was found guilty of failing to report sexual abuse of minors in the 1970s and '80s at the scout camps of Father Bernard Preyna, and sentenced to six months in jail.
    But "the Holy Father has left Cardinal Barbarin free to take the best decision for the Diocese and Cardinal Barbarin has decided to retire for a period of time," Vatican Spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said.
    Barbarin, 68, was sentenced to six months in jail by a Lyon court on March 7.
    It was a conditional sentence.
    Barbarin tendered his resignation as archbishop after the sentence.
    The Catholic Church has been roiled by abuse scandals and in February a Vatican summit of world bishops vowed zero tolerance on the issue.
    Also in February, former Vatican No.3 George Pell became the top Catholic Church figure to be convicted of sex abuse of minors, in his native Australia.
    He was found guilty of raping two choirboys in 1996 and was sentenced to six years in jail.
    He is appealing.