Pope Francis amended key law to criminalize sexual abuse by priests

Pope Francis Changed Church Law To Explicitly Criminalize Sexual Abuse to adults by priests that they take advantage of their authority, and to point out that lay people who work in the Church can be punished for similar sex crimes.

The new standards, released Tuesday after fourteen years of study, are part of the revised penal code section of the Vatican Code of Canon Law., the legal system that governs the Catholic Church of 1.3 billion members.

The most significant changes concern two articles, 1395 and 1398, which aim to correct problems and shortcomings in the management of sexual abuse by the Church. The law recognizes that adults can also be victims of priests who abuse their authority, and says that lay people who perform church work can be punished for abusing minors or adults.

It is one of the seven books that make up the Code of Canon Law, and its modification will take effect on December 8. “In order to respond adequately to the demands of the (Catholic) Church throughout the world, it was obvious that it was also necessary to review the penal discipline promulgated by Saint John Paul II on January 25, 1983 with the Code of Canon Law.», Explained the pontiff.

Revision work began in 2007 with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and now ends with a text that “introduces changes of various kinds in the current law and sanctions new criminal personalities“, in the words of Francois. It has also been improved “from a technical point of view, in particular with regard to fundamental aspects of criminal law, such as the right of defense, the prescription of criminal proceedings, a more precise determination of sentences“.

Now they are offered “objective criteria to identify the most appropriate sanction to apply in the specific case“, Reduce the discretion of the authority, to promote ecclesial unity in the application of sentences,”especially for the crimes that cause the most damage and scandals in the community», Adds the Pontiff.

The Vatican also criminalized grooming minors or vulnerable adults by priests to induce them to participate in pornographic material. This is the first time that canon law officially recognizes as criminal the method used by sex offenders to establish relationships with their victims, with gifts and other accolades, and then sexually exploit them.

The reform also removes much of the discretion that allowed bishops and Church leaders to ignore or cover up abuses., and makes it clear that they can be held liable for omissions and negligence in properly investigating and punishing priests involved in abuse.

Since that the current code has been written, in 1983, lawyers and bishops complained it was totally insufficient to deal with child sexual abusebecause it required long trials. The victims and their defenders, for their part, claimed that there was too much decision-making power in the hands of the bishops interested in protecting their priests.

the Vatican has made small changes over the years to correct issues and deficiencies, such as requiring that all cases be submitted for review to the Holy See and allow a more streamlined administrative process for removing clergy from the priesthood if the evidence against them is overwhelming.

Francois recently adopted new rules to punish bishops and religious superiors who fail to protect their parishioners. The new penal code incorporates these changes and goes further. According to the new law, Priests who have sex with anyone – not just a minor or someone with no capacity for reasoning – will be expelled if they use “force, threats or abuse of their authority” to establish such relationships. ..

The law does not explicitly define which adults would be included, and only mentions “one to whom the law recognizes equal protection“.

It has been a long time since the The Vatican considers a sexual relationship between a priest and an adult to be a sin, albeit consensual, on the assumption that adults can give or withhold their consent only because of their age.. But in the middle of the movement #Me too and scandals of seminarians and nuns who have suffered sexual abuse from their superiors, the Vatican has speculated that adults can also be victims if they are in a relationship with an imbalance of power.

This dynamic was very visible in the scandal surrounding the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington. Although the Vatican I had known for years that he slept with his seminarians, Mccarrick He was only brought to trial when someone reported that the pastor mistreated him when he was young. Francis expelled him from the priesthood in 2019.

In a novelty aimed at tackling sex crimes committed by lay people working within the Church, such as founders of secular religious movements or even administrators, the new law says that lay people can be punished in the same way if they are they abuse their authority to commit sex crimes.

Since lay people cannot be expelled from the priesthood, sanctions such as loss of employment, fines, or withdrawal from their community are considered.

The need for this clause became clear in the scandal surrounding Luis Figari, the secular founder of the conservative group based in Peru Sodalitium Christian Life, which has 20,000 members and delegations across South America and United States.

An independent investigation concluded that the founder was a paranoid narcissist obsessed with sex and seeing how his followers endured pain and humiliation. But the Vatican hesitated for years on how to sanction him, until it decided that he should be expelled from his community and transferred out of Peru.

The new law will come into force on December 8.

(With information from The Associated Press Yes EFE)

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