VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
By Dennis Lynch
on January 18 2014
Yesterday the Associated Press reported the Vatican defrocked a total of 384 priests in 2011-12 for sexual abuse of children. That’s more than twice as many as the Vatican defrocked between 2008 and 2009. Here are some of the facts related to the recent revelations about the Church.
1. “Defrocking” is a common term used to describe the dismissal or loss of the clerical state of a priest. A loss of the clerical state means the offender is forbidden from exercising any powers or rights granted via ordination. Priests can be defrocked for a number of reasons, but the punishment is considered the harshest penalty within the Church.
One such offense is the violation of the sixth commandment, ‘thou shall not commit adultery’. A priest can be defrocked for child abuse via Can. 1295.2 of the Code of Canon Law, which specifically mentions abuse of minors under 16. Can. 1295.2 does not require a cleric to be defrocked however, only that the offender be “punished with just penalties.”
2. 2011 and 2012 were the last two years Benedict XVI served as pope. The 384 cases of defrock and came after reports of abuse exploded in 2010. That year they doubled the statute of limitations on abuse within the church, allowing victims to report abuse up to 20 years after said abuse.
3. The Vatican has been handling sex abuses cases for over 10 years however, starting in 2001 when Benedict, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger decided to have all abuse cases to be sent to his office at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. 3,000 reports were accusations of abuse were made between 2001 and 2009, said the Washington Post back in 2010.
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