Pope legally compels clergy to denounce sexual abuse – Diario El Ciudadano and the region

Pope Francis on Thursday revealed stricter legislation requiring religious men and women to denounce to the church any suspicion of badual badault or badual harbadment, as well as the involvement of the church. Catholic hierarchy in these events.

All dioceses around the world should have a publicly available system to report on reported cases of badual abuse, which will be reviewed within 90 days.

These decisions were made in a "motu proprio", a letter directly from the pope, which modifies the internal legislation of the Church.

However, Pope Francis wished that "confessional secrecy remains absolute and inviolable", which excludes the denunciation of facts of this type if they were known during the rite of confession.

In the introduction of this apostolic letter entitled "You are the light of the world", Pope Francis stressed that "crimes of badual abuse offend Our Lord, cause physical, psychological and spiritual harm to the victims and harm the community of the faithful. "

"It is good that procedures are universally adopted to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful," added the pontiff.

"In order that these cases, in all their forms, do not happen again, a continuous and profound conversion of hearts is necessary, attested by concrete and effective actions involving everyone in the Church," commented the pope.

Use of child badgraphy

The text condemns all forms of badual violence, particularly against children and vulnerable adults. 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.

Do not forget that it is forbidden to produce, possess and distribute informally "child badgraphy materials".

The hierarchy of the Church is also reprehensible in the event of concealment, consisting of "acts or omissions intended to hinder or avoid civil inquiries or canonical, administrative or criminal investigations, against one another." religious or a religious in relation to crimes "badual badault the Pope's letter.

Among the planned developments is the obligation for all dioceses in the world to have, by June 2020, "one or more stable and easily accessible systems for reporting" on abuses. badually committed by religious, the use of badgraphy child abuse and coverage of the same abuse, says the text.

Such systems already exist in some countries like the United States, but the pope makes this initiative mandatory worldwide. Although the format of these information systems put in place by local churches remains unclear and should protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

Until now, religious men and women have denounced cases of violence based on their personal conscience.

The great novelty of this text is that the Pope denounces badual abuse "as soon as possible" by priests and religious men and women, an obligation for the whole Church. In addition, lay people who work for the Church are encouraged to report cases of abuse and harbadment.

When suspicions concern persons in hierarchical positions, such as cardinals or bishops, the report may be sent directly to the Holy See or, for example, to a metropolitan archbishop who oversees the bishops of a province.

Church legislation still does not have the obligation to inform the country's judicial authorities, unless the country's laws make it mandatory. In Italy, for example, the clergy are not obliged to report an abuse of badual justice.

The motu proprio, which details the rules of conduct of the investigations, does not modify the sentences already provided by the legislation of the Church.

In February, Pope Francis called for "concrete and effective" measures at the beginning of an unprecedented summit in the Vatican to combat the badual abuse of minors by clergy, in response to the victims who asked for decisive action in this area.