Rome ? The Vatican next month will make known its position on the new U.S. bishops’ strategy to eradicate sex abuse among clergy, a policy expected to raise objections at the Holy See.

The Vatican press office on Sunday said it would not comment about a report by the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal, U.S.-based publication, that the Vatican would not grant legal approval to the guidelines, adopted in June at a Dallas meeting of U.S. bishops.

Without Rome’s approval, the bishops’ policy amounts to a gentlemen’s agreement, as opposed to being enshrined in church law and binding on all American dioceses.

The report Saturday was similar to a recent spate of other articles quoting unnamed sources as saying that the Holy See has several problems with the guidelines, especially those which deal with the protection of priests who have been falsely accused of sexually abusing minors.

Vatican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the response would come in October.

“The Vatican will release its response soon,” spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

“I can’t say in which direction it (the response) is heading” before the Vatican’s study of the norms is wrapped up, he said.

In preparing the response, the Vatican has been sounding out its own canon law experts and officials from several Vatican congregations dealing with bishops, clergy and matters of doctrinal orthodoxy.

Some of those officials were away from the Vatican on vacation during the summer, and before recent weeks, couldn’t all sit down together to consult about the matter.

The Vatican also has its own tribunals, with specific and often slow-moving procedures.