Francisco's decree against pedophiles and concealers | Chronic

The dad Francisco decreed a series of new rules against abusers and badual abusers, such as the obligation for religious to denounce attacks and the provision that all dioceses have prepared in 2020 , an allegation of pedophilia.

Through the motu proprio "Vos estis lux mundi", the pontiff has created new procedures to denounce harbadment and violence and to ensure that bishops and religious superiors are responsible for their actions, on the basis of the conclusions of the meeting of pedophiles organized at the Vatican in February.

In 19 articles, the published papal document establishes the obligation for religious men and women to denounce abuses and provides that, by 2020, each diocese should have a system easily accessible to the public for receive the information.

Any religious who has information about a possible case of pedophilia "has the obligation to inform" to their superiors, according to the new standard, as well as omissions and cover-ups in the management of abuse cases.

The new norm, which will come into force on June 1, ratifies the presumption of innocence of the investigations and does not modify the sentences already provided for by the laws of the Holy See, while maintaining "absolute and inviolable" the secret of confession.

The decree, which will govern "ad experimentum" for three years, aims to sanction the acts or omissions of bishops and religious superiors. "with the intention of interfering or fleeing" abuse investigations.

Among the anticipated novelties is the obligation for all dioceses in the world to count in one year with "one or more stable systems easily accessible to the public for reporting" on badual abuse committed by clerics and religious, the use of child badgraphy and coverage of the same abuses.

The document covers not only harbadment and violence against children and vulnerable adults, but also badual abuse and harbadment resulting from an abuse of power, as well as the possession of child badgraphy.

This obligation also includes any case of violence against nuns by religious, as well as the case of harbadment of seminarians or novices of childbearing age.

In addition, it identifies, as a specific category, the so-called concealment behavior, consisting of: "acts or omissions intended to impede or avoid civil investigations or canonical, administrative or criminal investigations against a religious or a religious person in connection with crimes" of badual abuse.

The text establishes that, beyond the hardening of standards, "the person under investigation is recognized as presumption of innocence" and that he will be informed of the existence of the inquiry at the request of the competent dicastery.

The prosecution should only be notified if a formal proceeding is open and, if deemed appropriate to ensure the integrity of the investigation or evidence, it may be omitted in the preliminary phase, indicates the Proprio motu.