Taking unprecedented action regarding the Catholic Church’s past struggles with charges of child molestation, Pope Francis has just announced the creation of a tribunal that will listen to cases concerning bishops that have been accused of covering up pedophile acts conducted by priests.

As reported by the BBC, this tribunal, which has come about after the recommendation made by Francis’ newly created panel on clerical sex abuse, will have the authority to punish bishops who have failed to protect young victims from abuse.

The United Nations criticized the Church for failing to put a stop to child abuse and for allowing cover-ups to occur.

According to CNN, a 2013 U.N. report stated that the Vatican should establish an "independent mechanism for monitoring children's rights" in order to investigate complaints of abuse and work with law enforcement.

Now this appears to actually be happening.

A statement from the Vatican informs that the new department would be under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that its primary aim would be "to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors."

Sex scandals involving the Catholic Church are a worldwide problem, as there have been notorious incidents of child abuse at the hands of priests in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ireland and the United States.

In a 2014 interview in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the pontiff said that child abuse was like a "leprosy" that was infecting the Church.

Getting very specific about the ratio of pedophiles to priests Francis said, "Among the 2% who are paedophiles are priests, bishops and cardinals. Others, more numerous, know but keep quiet. They punish without giving the reason."

As reported in a BBC piece, Francis went on say that he found this state of affairs to be “intolerable."