VATICAN CITY — The Vatican today has for the first time made it clear that bishops and other high-ranking clergy should report clerical sex abuse to police.

The Vatican has insisted that this has long been the Catholic Church's policy. But in a new guide for lay readers posted today on its Web site, it made public for the first time an explicit policy of reporting abuse to law-enforcement.

The guidelines read: "Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed."

That phrase was not included in a draft of the guidelines obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The rest of the guidelines follow previously known and public procedures for handling canonical investigations and trials of suspected abuse.