VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost
Jason Berry
Details of Pope Francis’ reform agenda emerged last week. He authorized new criminal laws governing Vatican officials and employees, just as a United Nations committee pressed the Holy See for details on its handling of clergy sex offenders.
The Motu proprio (“in his hand”), or decree by the pope, of sanctions for the Vatican City-State seems to have come in response to the Vatican Bank money laundering scandal. The new laws also cover child pornography and crimes involving children, with prison terms of up to 12 years.
“This is strong stuff,” Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean of Duquesne University Law School told GlobalPost. “And don’t forget who is subject to these new laws – all Vatican officials, the officers and employees of the Roman Curia, apostolic nuncios (papal ambassadors), and diplomatic staff of the Holy See…This is very broad coverage.”
Across several decades, a core issue of the clergy abuse scandals has been the de facto immunity, under the Code of Canon Law, for cardinals and bishops who sheltered and recycled perpetrators. Canon law is an administrative code for the way bishops govern dioceses, and the rights of priests, nuns, lay people and parishes as church entities. Although priests can be defrocked by the Vatican for abusing youth, bishops occupy a unique standing, known as apostolic succession – as part of a lineage going back to the ancient apostles – which means that only the pope has the power to strip a bishop of his title, something popes in modern times have been loath to do.
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