In what is being labeled as the most significant change in church laws on sex abuse cases, the Vatican on Thursday announced a set of new internal rules that are expected to rein in on priests who have allegedly abused children sexually. The new regulations also codified “the attempted ordination of women” to the priesthood as one of the gravest church crimes followed by heresy, schism and pedophilia. In the revised regulations, the Vatican increased the limitations in abuse cases from 10 to 20 years from the victim’s 18th birthday.
It also incorporated possession of child pornography and the sexual exploitation of mentally retarded kids in the lists of crimes dealt by the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In a statement, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the new regulations reflected the church’s commitment to addressing child sex abuse with “rigor and transparency.”
However, the new regulations have failed to satisfy many attorneys for the victims in sexual abuse by the priests. The new regulations do not hold bishops accountable for the crime committed by priests under their supervision. In addition, it does not obligate reporting of such crimes to civil authorities. In place of that, the regulations only codify the law special procedures to allow the Vatican to try priests involved in sex abuse case. “This a very important step from the point of view of canon law,” the Vatican’s internal prosecutor, Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, said at a news conference at the Vatican on Thursday, that also happens to be his first public appearance since the sex abuse crisis erupted this spring. “But a document is always a document. It does not solve all the problems,” added Monsignor Scicluna, who oversees all abuse cases brought to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith. “It is a very important instrument, but it is the way you use the instrument that is going to have the real effect on the church.”
Meanwhile, critics say that revisions announced on Thursday were not very remarkable as being projected. “History has shown that church abuse policies are rarely followed. But even if these new guidelines are obeyed, their impact on the ongoing crisis is likely to be insignificant. Defrocking a predator, by definition, is too late,” SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement. Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks cases of sex abuse by priests cases worldwide, said the changes “amount to administrative tinkering of a secretive internal process.”
