Pope Francis has updated a 2019 church law aimed at holding senior churchmen accountable for covering up cases of sex abuse
With the update, Francis made permanent temporary provisions that were passed in 2019 in a moment of crisis for the Vatican and Roman Catholic hierarchy. The law was praised at the time for laying out precise mechanisms to investigate complicit bishops and religious superiors, even though it amounted to bishops policing fellow bishops without any requirement that civil law enforcement be informed.
The expansion is a response to the many cases that have come to light in the last few years of lay leaders abusing their authority to sexually exploit people under their spiritual care or authority, including a recent investigation implicatingThe update also reaffirms that adults such as nuns or seminarians who are dependent on their bishops or superiors can be victims of abuse.
Francis originally set out the norms as a response to the decades of cover-up exposed by the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report and the scandal over then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was eventually The update makes clear each diocese must have an office to receive complaints, a more specific requirement than the original call for a mere “system,” such as an email address. The change derived from Francis’ realization that many dioceses, particularly in poorer parts of the world, dragged their feet.
Survivors have long complained that the Vatican spent decades turning a blind eye to bishops and religious superiors who moved predator priests from parish to parish rather than report them to police.
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