VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's leading sex abuse expert says Pope Francis' summit in February with global church leaders on preventing abuse should also address holding bishops accountable when they fail to protect their flocks from pedophile priests.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna told a news conference Monday that "there is a great expectation for more accountability" from Catholic faithful worldwide, and that the summit is the appropriate venue to discuss it.

Scicluna, who for a decade was the Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor, also said the Vatican should consider whether sexual abuse of adults by people in positions of power could be prosecuted in the same stringent way that it prosecutes sexual abuse of minors.

He spoke to reporters Monday during the Vatican's meeting on youth, which has been dominated by the abuse scandal.