VATICAN CITY – The Vatican launched a new round of damage control Wednesday about priestly sex abuse, saying a letter it sent to Irish bishops on Rome's concerns about their reporting abuse to police had been "deeply misunderstood."

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said with the 1997 letter the Vatican merely wanted to ensure that Irish bishops follow church law precisely so that pedophile priests would not have any technical grounds to escape church punishment.

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