VATICAN CITY — When Pope Benedict XVI announced last month he was transferring his respected sex crimes prosecutor to Malta to become a bishop, Vatican watchers immediately questioned whether the Holy See was relaxing its tough line on clerical abuse — and if another outspoken cleric was being punished for doing his job too well.

After all, several senior Vatican officials who ran afoul of the Vatican’s entrenched ways have recently been transferred in face-saving ‘‘promote and remove’’ steps as the Vatican handles fallout from a criminal trial about leaked papal documents, a mixed report card on its financial transparency, and its controversial crackdown on US nuns.