New measures against child sex abuse among the clergy

By Tara Rippin
EuroWeekly
October 20, 2018

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2018/10/20/new-measures-against-child-sex-abuse-among-the-clergy/#.W8yJF2hKhPY

VATICAN: A commission to prevent child abuse is to be set up before a meeting with the Pope.

A SPANISH bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse is to lead a commission against paedophilia in the church.

Juan Antonio Menendez has proposed to update its protocols for action against these crimes.

The Bishop of Astorga is reported as saying it will be ‘a matter of recovering and bringing back everything that the civil and canonical regulations have been issuing these years’.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference intends to outline its actions, up to now governed by agreements signed between Spain and the Vatican in 1979, and the Protocol of Action Against Abuses the institute activated in 2010, before many of the documented cases became public.

It comes after Pope Francis declared he wants to open an ‘internal debate’ at a meeting scheduled for February 2019, to which all presidents of the conferences are expected to attend.

The new commission will be required to update current protocols and draft new regulations for the prevention of child sex abuse and protection of the crimes.

The results of which will be presented to the Vatican representatives.

February’s meeting will be private, and attended by jurists of the Episcopal Board of Legal Affairs, representatives from the Civil Legal Service, the Court of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature as well as the Legal Service of Parliament and the Deputy Secretary for General Affairs.