VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Michael Sean Winters | May. 8, 2015 Distinctly Catholic
The Holy See this morning published the statutes for the Commission for the Protection of Minors, giving that body canonical and juridical status within the Roman curia. Reading the statutes this morning, it may not seem like they are very earth-shattering or, in the event, Church-shattering, but they are.
First, there is the fact of a commission. One of the ways any bureaucratic body decides to highlight the significance of an issue is to create a section of the bureaucracy tasked specifically with addressing that issue. So, in the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education, separating it from what had been the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, giving the new department its own staff and budget and focus. The new statutes do something similar for the Commission for the Protection of Minors. They members and staff of the commission do not have to focus on other issues, only this one.
In the 1990s, part of the initial problem with getting the Vatican to address the problem of clergy sex abuse was that no one knew precisely which dicastery had authority to address the problem. Eventually, it was decided to refer all cases to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by the uber-competent Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rather than to the Congregation for Clergy, then led by the abuser-coddling Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. The latter congregation never got over the snub and, to this day, has resisted the efforts of the CDF to remove pedophiles from the clerical state. But, the Prefect, members and the staff of the CDF have many responsibilities, and while they will continue to handle issues relating to laicizing accused pedophiles, or meting out other judicial sentences such as a life of prayer and penance, they had never been authorized to work with episcopal conferences around the world to establish procedures and policies that help protect minors. Here is the second major change: The new commission specifically has the task of working with local churches, and coordinating efforts within the Roman curia, to deal with the scourge of clergy sex abuse.
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