Pope Francis on Saturday updated the 2019 Church law requiring all priests and religious to report crimes of sexual abuse to the Vatican and extending it to lay leaders of international associations.
The new document takes effect on April 30 and repeals the May 2019 version.
Francis reaffirmed and made permanent the temporary provisions of the previous law that were passed at a time of crisis in the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy.
At the time, the legislation was praised for establishing precise mechanisms to investigate accomplice bishops and religious superiors, but its implementation was uneven and the Vatican was criticized by victims for a lack of transparency.
The new rules join other amendments to the treatment of abuse by members of the Catholic Church that have since been enacted.
more important, the new standards cover, in addition to clergy, moderators of associations approved by the Holy See.
This is in response to the many cases that have emerged in recent years of lay leaders abusing their authority to sexually rape people in their care.
The Vatican also reaffirms that even adults can fall victim to predatory priests, such as nuns or seminarians.
Canon law previously held that only adults who “normally” lacked reason could be considered victims.
The new rule makes it clear that adults can even occasionally be made vulnerable to abuse, depending on the context.
It states that a vulnerable being is “any person in a state of illness, physical or mental disability, or personal deprivation that limits, even in passing, their ability to comprehend or willing or resist the crime”.
The text also requires all church staff to internally report allegations of clergy abuse, though it refrains from reporting it to the police. It also extends protection to whistleblowers and reaffirms the need to protect the accused’s reputation.
Victims have long complained about the Vatican’s stance, saying that for decades it has turned a blind eye to bishops and religious superiors who cover up cases of abuse and move priests suspected of sex crimes to other parishes rather than to to report to the authorities.
The 2019 law attempted to respond to these complaints, but the victims blamed the Holy See for the secrecy of the investigations.
Source: DN
