ROME – The Vatican has told bishops around the world to report cases of clerical sexual abuse to civil authorities, even when local law does not require it, a step that abuse victims and their advocates have demanded over the decades in those that the scandal has shaken the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican also urged bishops to investigate even allegations of abuse that appear “dubious” or made anonymously, rather than dismissing them entirely.
But the new instructions are not binding and are not enshrined in canon law of the church, prompting criticism that the Vatican still gives bishops too much leeway to judge the behavior of their priests. Instead, the instructions were part of a new manual intended to guide bishops and religious superiors who may have little experience handling abuse cases.
“What is important to remember today is that it is still permissible under canon law for a bishop not to inform a priest that he is raping a child; it’s still allowed for thousands of bishops around the world, “Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a victim advocacy and research group, said in a telephone interview.
The Priest Abuse Survivor Network, which has long called for mandatory reports from the police, called the new guide “a step forward, but the smallest of steps.”
The change comes after three popes for three decades have tried to handle an abuse scandal that has involved tens of thousands of allegations against priests and clergymen.
Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, has gone further than his predecessors, experts say, in trying to establish a universal set of practices for a global church, consult victims of abuse and lay people, and urge leaders of the church to cooperate with civil authorities.
But Francis has also been accused of not really complying with the law, the forceful reforms he has advocated. An unprecedented summit on sexual abuse at the Vatican in February 2019 raised hopes that a tipping point has been reached, but failed to provide the clear global battle plan that Catholics have demanded.
Critics say the biggest and most perennial problem for the church has been a lack of transparency and the continued failure to hold bishops accountable.
The first of the Pope’s 21 recommendations to the bishops when the Vatican conference began was to develop a “practical manual outlining the steps to be followed by the authorities at key moments when a case arises.” Guidelines issued Thursday marked that box.
For years, bishops have tried to handle abuse cases internally, using church investigators, courts, and commissions in their own dioceses before sending the cases to the Vatican office known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Last year, Pope Francis issued an ecclesiastical law requiring bishops, for the first time, to report allegations of clergy sexual abuse to their superiors.
Until now, however, the Vatican had expected bishops to report allegations of abuse to police and prosecutors only when required by law. Many countries, and some American states, do not have such laws.
The new instructions, issued Thursday by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “They are likely to have the greatest impact in countries that do not have a well-developed system for handling abuse cases,” said the Rev. Hans Zollner, a member of the Vatican’s child protection commission and president of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical University. Gregorian.
He said the bishops had been asking for step-by-step guidelines “for a long time.”
The new manual says: “Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, ecclesiastical authorities must inform the competent civil authorities if this is deemed necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further acts criminals. “
The Vatican described the manual as an “instruction manual” intended to help its clergy tackle the crimes that remain for the Church, “a deep wound crying out for healing.”
Msgr. Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview published in The Vatican News on Thursday that the new guidelines require the investigation of most cases of reported abuse, including those arising from allegations. anonymous.
“It has become clear that a peremptory attitude in one direction or another does not lead to the search for truth and justice,” he said.
The manual says that the charges should only be dismissed if the bishop considers it impossible to proceed because, for example, the accuser was not a minor when the abuse occurred, or it is clear that the accused author was not present.
The document notes that crimes against minors can range from sexual relationships to pornography, through “online conversations and / or propositions of a sexual nature”.
He reaffirms that reports of crimes received during the confession cannot be disclosed, but asks the priest listening to the confession to “try to convince the penitent to disclose that information by other means” so that the “appropriate authorities” can take action.
The document also advises bishops against what for many years was a common practice: simply transferring an accused priest to another parish, locality, or country, “with the idea that distancing him from the place of the alleged crime or the alleged victims constitutes a sufficient solution of the case. ”
And the manual warns that bishops who do not investigate allegations of abuse could face canonical procedures for negligence.
