San Salvador: Three El Salvadoran priests have been found guilty of sexual abuse against minors at a Vatican ecclesiastical trial and suspended from their priestly duties, San Salvador's Catholic Church announced Sunday.

Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar of San Salvador said Francisco Galvez, Antonio Molina and Jesus Delgado, the biographer and former secretary of murdered Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, were expelled after a criminal trial held at the Vatican found them responsible for sex crimes committed between 1980 and 2000.

No criminal charges have been brought against the three men by the Salvadoran government.

Pope Francis has said sexual violence against children will not be tolerated and has vowed to root out sexual abuse in the church.

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