This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/world/europe/pope-francis-abuse-catholic-church.html
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Pope Francis Decrees New Rules for Reporting Abuse, but Not Penalties | Pope Francis Decrees New Rules for Reporting Abuse, but Not Penalties |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| ROME — Pope Francis introduced universal procedures on Thursday for reporting and investigating clerical sex abuse, an issue that has haunted his papacy and devastated the Roman Catholic Church he has sought to remake. | ROME — Pope Francis introduced universal procedures on Thursday for reporting and investigating clerical sex abuse, an issue that has haunted his papacy and devastated the Roman Catholic Church he has sought to remake. |
| The new norms, delivered in a Motu Proprio, or law decreed by the pope himself, come into force on June 1 and are experimental, in that they will be re-evaluated after a three-year trial period. | The new norms, delivered in a Motu Proprio, or law decreed by the pope himself, come into force on June 1 and are experimental, in that they will be re-evaluated after a three-year trial period. |
| The law, titled “Vos estis lux mundi,” or “You are the light of the world,” relates to the sexual abuse of minors under the age of 18, of vulnerable adults who are physically or mentally disabled and of people who are taken advantage of because they find themselves in positions in which they cannot exercise their full autonomy. They also extend to the creation, possession or use of child pornography. | |
| If those crimes are covered up by bishops or other church officials, or if those officials “intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations,” Francis writes, then they will also be subject to investigation. | If those crimes are covered up by bishops or other church officials, or if those officials “intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations,” Francis writes, then they will also be subject to investigation. |
| Victims of abuse and their advocates are likely to be underwhelmed by the new norms, which are silent on the penalties for abuse and its cover-up and instead focus merely on reporting procedures. | |
| The church’s failure to hold bishops and senior clerics accountable for covering up sexual abuse has fueled enormous frustration and backlash inside the church. | |
| Francis acknowledged that damage in the new law. | |
| To ensure that clerical abuses “in all their forms, never happen again, a continuous and profound conversion of hearts is needed, attested by concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church,” Francis wrote. He added: “Even if so much has already been accomplished, we must continue to learn from the bitter lessons of the past, looking with hope toward the future.” | |
| One lesson learned painfully over the decades of the sexual abuse crisis was that the problem was systemic — if bishops were not held accountable for covering up abuse, then the problem could not be solved. | |
| “Therefore, it is good that procedures be universally adopted to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful,” Francis wrote, putting the ultimate responsibility for confronting abuse onto his bishops around the world. | |
| Soon after he was elected in 2013, Francis suggested that he would remedy the erosion of trust caused by the abuse scandals, but change has been slow. Instead, Francis has stumbled at times, saying that he believed bishops over victims, pulling the plug on a new church body intended to hold bishops accountable and failing to take decisive action. | |
| Many victims of sexual abuse have said that they consider his talk empty. Their anger boiled over last year, amid grand jury reports and investigations into widespread clerical abuse in the United States, where one of the country’s top cardinals, Theodore E. McCarrick, was ultimately kicked out of the priesthood by Francis for his abuse. Scandals also flared up in Chile and in Australia, where Cardinal George Pell, a former close adviser of Francis and top Vatican official, was sentenced in March to six years in prison for sexual abuse. | |
| Enemies of Francis within the church, who think his inclusive approach is damaging, have seized on the abuse crisis as a cudgel, at one point demanding the pope’s resignation for his covering up of Mr. McCarrick’s actions and those of other abusive clerics. That allegation has not been proved. | |
| In response to the pressure, Francis this year convened a landmark meeting in the Vatican with global church leaders to educate them about a widespread phenomenon that many of them still denied, played down or seemed to misunderstand. | |
| The Vatican press office said the law announced on Thursday was the product of reflection during and after the February meeting, and represented “a further commitment of the church in this area.” | |
| Supporters of Francis, including his chief experts on tackling sexual abuse, expressed belief that, unless the pope had cooperation from the bishops, the law risked going unheeded, eroding his authority and leaving the scourge of abuse unaddressed. | |
| “I desire that this commitment be implemented in a fully ecclesial manner,” Francis wrote in the law, “so that it may express the communion that keeps us united, in mutual listening and open to the contributions of those who care deeply about this process of conversion.” | |
| Victims of child abuse and their advocates, many of whom sought the automatic defrocking of offending clerics and the prelates who covered up for them, said that they found the outcome of the February meeting in the Vatican deeply disappointing. | |
| The temporary new law gives church dioceses a year to establish offices and procedures to facilitate the reporting of abuse and to safeguard the privacy and reputation of the abused. | |
| Under the regulations, priests and other church officials with knowledge of a credible accusation of abuse are required to “promptly” report it to their superiors. The local archbishop or prelate will be in charge of the investigation, and a fund can be created to finance it. | |
| Advocates of having the top cleric in a region lead an investigation argue that it will enable the church to better investigate bishops and hold their own accountable. | |
| The law encourages archbishops to include experts in the field — or “qualified persons” in the law’s parlance — to aid in investigations. If a prelate feels that there is a conflict of interest, he must recuse himself and kick the investigation up to the relevant Vatican department. | |
| The investigator should, according to the law, request “information from individuals and institutions, including civil institutions, that are able to provide useful elements for the investigation.” | |
| And Francis makes it clear that in no way should the church interfere with civil authorities. | |
| “These norms apply without prejudice to the rights and obligations established in each place by state laws,” he writes, “particularly those concerning any reporting obligations to the competent civil authorities.” | |
| If papal ambassadors are accused, the Vatican’s Secretary of State will lead the investigation. Qualified lay people may assist in the investigation, which should be speedy, about 90 days, with possible extensions. | |
| According to the new rules, the case would then be referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, the church’s chief doctrinal office, which already oversees abuse cases. Depending on where the abuse took place, other church departments, such as the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, may have jurisdiction. | |
| Critics have worried that without a single department dedicated to abuse cases, the Vatican’s infamous bureaucracy will impede effective responses. | |
| But Francis makes it clear there can be no effort to silence the alleged victims. | |
| “An obligation to keep silent may not be imposed on any person with regard to the contents of his or her report,” he writes, though he makes it clear that “the person under investigation enjoys the presumption of innocence.” |