Vatican: Bishops Worldwide Ordered to Draft Sex Abuse Guidelines, IGN, May 16, 2011

Vatican: Bishops Worldwide Ordered to Draft Sex Abuse Guidelines

IGN
May 16, 2011

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Vatican-Bishops-worldwide-ordered-to-draft-sex-abuse-guidelines_312020949282.html

Vatican City, 16 May (AKI) - The Vatican said on Monday it has instructed every bishops' conference in the world to draft guidelines on the sexual abuse of minors by priests within a year. Victims must be treated with "respect" and paedophile clergy should always be to be reported to civil authorities, the Holy See said.

The recommendations were contained in a circular letter sent in recent days to bishops around the world by the Catholic Church's top body on disciplinary matters, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said.

The letter released on Monday by US Cardinal William J. Levada, the head of the CDF, described sexual abuse of minors as "a crime prosecuted by civil law" and said bishops should follow local laws that require the reporting of sex abuse to police.

Information also needed be exchanged between seminaries, dioceses and religious institutes relating to paedophiles or suspect paedophiles, the letter said.

The CDF said it was stressing the importance for bishops conferences to give special attention to developing prevention programmes "to create truly safe environments for children."

In dealing with victims of alleged abuse crimes and their families, the letter urged bishops to listen to them and to show "a commitment to their spiritual and psychological assistance."

But US-based SNAP group, which represents victims of clerical abuse slammed Levada's letter saying it would "change little" concerning the abuse of minors by clergy.

SNAP cited as reasons the "virtually limitless" power of bishops, few of whom advocate genuine measures to prevent sex abuse and who they said tend to ignore and conceal child sex crimes. The reasons for this include "archaic" laws which don't adequately defend victims, the deference of civil authorities and parishioners to the church and the shame and confusion of victims.

Another problem is that 'guidelines' aren't binding or mandatory, SNAP said.

The Vatican last July adopted stricter norms on paeodophilia in the wake of a sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church and plunged it into its worst crisis in decades.

The scandal involved hundreds of cases sometimes dating back many decades where minors were sexually molested by priests and other clergy at Church-run institutions and parishes.

The US, Ireland, Brazil and Pope Benedict XVI's native Germany and other European countries including Belgium and Italy were among countries across several continents hit by the revelations.

The Vatican's July 2010 norms introduced an accelerated process to defrock predator priests, broadened participation in church tribunals on sex abuse cases to include non-priests, extended the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases from 10 to 20 years, and branded the possession of child pornography as a "grave crime."