Pope Francis Moves Ahead With New Law On Sex Abuse Reporting

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has permanently updated the legislation addressing sex discrimination and monitoring in the Catholic Church five centuries after the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report.

The news, which was written as a” motu proprio” by the pope directly on his program, was released in Italian on Friday with the usual lack of fanfare and state associated with apostolic articles of this importance.

The first edition of” Vos estis lux mundi ,” which Pope Francis published in 2019, was intended to be an” experimental” set of rules for reporting cases of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, including bishops. Even then, abuse victims remarked that the rules calling for” zero tolerance” against church accused weren’t” even enough.”

Sufferers complained that little progress had been made and that sets designated as” vulnerable parents” were not adequately covered by practical functions of the” vos estis” coverage after the Pope held a four-day conference on sex abuse later in 2019. Canonists claim that under the new legislation, such a definition is still unclear. Are clergy, such as disciples or sisters, considered” resilient” when it comes to spiritual guidance or obedience? The new law also includes lay-led consecrated organizations like Opus Dei and Regnum Christi, the latter of which has been the subject of a long-running incident involving its founder.

The new and permanent version, which was released by the Vatican on Friday, addresses the public scandal and incarceration of Cardinal George Pell, where a media trial played an active role only for the High Court to later exonerate him— balancing” zero tolerance” with equal application of the law— including assumption of innocence before proven guilty.

Michael J. Mazza, a canonist and legal prosecutor who graduated from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and whose exercise focuses on defamation activities and advocacy for clergy, both religious and secular, was contacted by The Daily Wire to discuss the new regulations. Mazza, the author of” The Right of a Cleric to Bona Fama ,” immediately drew attention to the increased emphasis on ensuring equitable and practical application of the rule of law.

” I am really happy to see that in Articles 5 2 and 13, the right to recognition is now expressly mentioned, along with appreciation for the presumption of innocence.” However, the evidence will be in the dessert, Mazza wrote on Sunday in a letter. ” It will be interesting to see if this very clear directive from the Holy See will have an impact on the abhorrent— yet very common — practice of publishing the names of” credibly accused” clerics before any criminal proceedings have taken place in the USA. This is frequently done in the name of” transparency ,” but it harms accused clerics’ reputation in an unfair, serious, and long-lasting way.

As evidenced by the numerous instances of Fr. Abuse incidents of Marko Rupnik of Slovakia, a well-known contemporary photographer who allegedly preyed on spiritual sisters while using the Sacraments, or the notorious ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, have been known to appear unresolved and even be covered up for years after being reported to Church authorities. Mazza points out a glaring flaw in the new regulations, despite the fact that they specify deadlines for action to be taken. How” Vos estis lux mundi”( VELM ) establishes specific timelines continues to intrigue me, Mazza wrote. While it is really good that the bishops have such strict deadlines, priests and deacons have observed that there are none for regular clerics. The administration appears to be unaware of the idea of a pretty obvious double standards.

However, it appears that the Pope’s different law safeguards the secrecy of exchanges made outside the bounds of confession. Mazza noted that” the reporting obligations in the new VELM contain a slight but potentially significant change.” ” Now defined in terms such that anything revealed to a cleric” in the internal forum” is excepted from the reporting requirement( i.e., broader than the confessional seal, but no longer specifically referenced to canon 1548 2 )”

However, the Pope seems to make it obvious that civil law must be regarded as being secondary to canon law when it comes to acts of a sexual nature, whether reporting, investigating, trying, or judgment. According to Mazza, if civil law actively opposes the Catholic Church, this fact— which appears to be good in substance — could be very difficult. ” As always, in these antinomian days, the real impact of this will be seen in the upcoming months and years, i.e., whether the law is actually applied as written or whether it is only applied when it meets the needs of bishops / superiors( or perhaps even more directly, their lawyers)”