A new Vatican law the pope issued Saturday appeared to be a response to a long-standing demand by Catholic activists in the United States who have denounced what they saw as the church’s failure to take action against pedophile priests.
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In the second article of the Motu Proprio, the Pope specifies that in all cases in which serious indications, as listed in the previous article, are present, the competent Congregation of the Roman Curia may initiate an investigation on the issue, notifying the interested party and providing him the possibility of producing documents and witnesses.
The Roman Catholic Church has for much of the last 15 years been forced on the defensive by scandals involving priests who are alleged to have abused children and then been transferred rather than handed over to the authorities.
“Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church “process” to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or hide child sex crimes”, Clohessy said.
In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church’s canonical code already allowed for a bishop to be removed for “grave reasons”. Representatives of abuse victims have accused the Church of preferring to move the priests from one parish to another, instead of punishing them and reporting the crimes.
“The Church, like a loving mother, loves all her children, but treats and protects with special affection the smallest and most helpless”, the papal decree said.
More recently, in Philadelphia, Pope Francis spoke before a gathering of bishops and praised bishops engaged in court battle for their courage in the fight to bring healing to victims, though he did not speak to the struggle that victims face.
Becky Ianni, who was abused by a priest, told ABC News she is skeptical about the new law.
Since taking office, Pope Francis has met with survivors of sexual assault and established that under Vatican law, sexual violence against children is a crime.
The new measures are spelled out in an Apostolic Letter in the form of a personal edict, according to the Vatican press office. “We doubt this process will be helpful”. “We must now wait for the result of the proceedings before the civil courts”, Francis said.
Under the new law the bishops will have the right to defend themselves but if found guilty to they will only have two options, the immediate cessation or voluntary resignation within fifteen days.
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On Saturday, Pope Francis issued an edict on the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, in which he said that negligence on the part of a bishop can constitute removal from office.
