A leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States also seemed frustrated by the Vatican’s announcement.

“This is a serious issue,” Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that called for an immediate and transparent investigation in cooperation with law enforcement. “We hope the Holy See will be forthcoming with more details.”

Francis has talked of having “zero tolerance” for offending priests and establishing powerful committees to safeguard children, but he has moved uncharacteristically slowly when it comes to removing the stain of child sex abuse from the church, even some of his supporters have said.

Nine months into his pontificate, he created a commission of outside experts to counsel the church on the protection of children. But the two survivors of sexual abuse on the commission have left amid complaints of slow bureaucracy and broken promises. A new tribunal to discipline bishops who cover up abuse was disbanded because, the pope said, the Vatican already had the necessary offices.

And despite warning signs, Francis brought Cardinal George Pell to the Vatican as one of its top officials despite long-swirling accusations that the cleric had abused or covered up the abuse of minors. In June, the Vatican announced that Francis had granted Cardinal Pell a leave of absence to face charges of sexual assault against minors in his native Australia, making him the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with such an offense.

Still, the announcement on Friday of the transfer is seen by some analysts as progress, as is a conference to be hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome to fight “digital sexual child abuse.” Defenders of recalling the priest argue that this is a chance for the Vatican to show that it is willing to get tough on its own citizens.

The Vatican drew criticism in an earlier case involving Jozef Wesolowski, a Polish archbishop who was accused of sexually abusing children in the Dominican Republic, where he served from 2008 to 2013 as the Vatican’s ambassador.