VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency
Analysis by Andrea Gagliarducci
Vatican City, Mar 4, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The movie Spotlight’s Best Picture win at the Academy Awards has brought renewed attention to the Catholic sex abuse scandals that broke in 2002. But while the Church’s failures are well-known, it is also true that the Catholic Church has made more progress than any other body on this issue.
There are several marks of progress: the removal and canonical punishment of clergy who commit sex abuse, especially high-level churchmen and leaders of religious movements; papal meetings with victims; reform of church law; and the creation of new church structures.
The Church has always been concerned about what canon law calls “the most serious crimes.” Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law and a 1922 instruction from the Vatican, sexual abuse of minors was treated as “the worst crime,” a “crimen pessimum,” which was to be reported to the Holy Office – later known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
After the Second Vatican Council, the Church moved to decentralize the judgment of these cases and to value the authority and judgment of local bishops.
In some cases, the canon law process was dismissed as anachronistic in favor of a so-called “pastoral approach.” This meant from 1962 to 2001 only a few cases of abuse – those in which the priest abused the Sacrament of Penance – would go to the Holy Office.
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