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Vatican's New Sex Abuse Guidelines
New Vatican guidelines aimed at fighting child abuse by priests tell Catholic bishops they should cooperate with police, but do not order them to report allegations to the authorities.
"Sexual abuse of minors is not just a canonical delict but also a crime prosecuted by civil law," says the letter to bishops around the world, using the Vatican term for a violation of church law.
Abuse crisis fuels debate over John Paul II’s legacy
Local laws on reporting suspected crimes to the authorities "should always be followed," the guidelines say.
The new Vatican advice gives national conferences of bishops until May next year to come up with their own guidelines on how to handle allegations of abuse.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi conceded that there was little new in Monday's letter, but said breaking new ground was not the point - standardizing the church's response to abuse allegations was.
"Novelty is not the aim of the document," he said. "The aim of the letter is to have a common denominator of principles."
Mons. Charles Scicluna, the Justice Promoter in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and its top expert on clerical sexual abuse issues, gave the following interview to Reuters Television on Monday to explain the Roman Catholic Church’s new guidelines for dealing with priests accused of molesting children. The Vatican told bishops around the world earlier on Monday that they must make it a global priority to root out sexual abuse and cooperate with civil authorities to end the scandals that have tarnished the Roman Catholic Church’s image around the world.
Scicluna, who hails from Malta, has been a key contributor to Vatican documents on sexual abuse.
WHAT DOES THIS LETTER INTEND TO DO? “The circular letter intends to help individual bishops around the world to develop guidelines on how to process cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics, by priests, and also to produce a set of best practice guidelines which would ensure the creation of safe environments for young people in the Church. It’s intended to help and to strengthen the resolve of bishops in responding adequately to the cases they have in their local situations.”
WHAT KIND OF STANDARDS IS THIS TRYING TO SET? “It talks about formation of communities and clerics, the ability to recognise the signs of abuse — because that’s the first point in adequately responding to abuse — but also future formation of priests, the respect of boundaries, and also information that would insure and ensure that priests have the necessary skills to lead celibate lives, as they should.”
WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT HOW LOCAL CHURCHES SHOULD DEAL WITH CIVIL AUTHORITIES? “Local Churches have to take account and take into consideration the civil law which is in their own countries. They have to follow any laws which specifically concern reporting cases to the civil authorities. They have to follow the civil law in their country.”
IS THERE ANY CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCH AND CIVIL LAW? “There is no conflict between Church and civil law to the extent that the civil legislation considers sex abuse of a minor a crime and asks that people are brought to justice and that they are assured a fair trial.”
THIS SEEMS TO BE SENDING A CLEAR SIGNAL TO BISHOPS THAT THEY ARE ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT GOES ON IN THEIR DIOCESE. IS THAT RIGHT?
“In any discernment of a case, in any decision taken on a case, the bishop has an important role to play. He is responsible for decisions concerning his priests. He has the duty to consult experts in the field and has to listen to his community, but the responsibility of the ultimate decisions about what happens to his priests and to his people concerning child protection remains with him, with the bishop.”
IS THE CIRCULAR LETTTER SAYING THIS IS A TOP PRIORITY?
“The circular letter signed by Cardinal Leveda and Archbishop Ladaria makes the important point that the protection of minors is a paramount consideration when you are talking about the common good of the Church. There is no common good of the Church or of the institution or of the People of God which is different from the protection of minors and care taken to any victims.” HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO CRITICS WHO SAY THIS IS TOO LITTLE, TO LATE?
“This is a long-term planning procedure. It has taken some time for the Church to recognise that there have to be clear guidelines. It is a good day for people who expect that the Church gives the good example, even when it comes to the protection of minors.”
Many countries' bishops' conferences already have plans in place, but some - such as Italy - do not, Lombardi said.
"For some that have already started dealing with the problem, this letter is an encouragement, and some who have never worked on it will now start dealing with it," Lombardi said.
Bishops in Belgium and the Netherlands - both facing sex abuse scandals - are working on their own sets of guidelines. Other nations, such as Brazil, Germany, and many English-speaking countries already have them, Lombardi said.
Advocates for victims said even before they were released that they would not solve the problem.
"Bishops ignore and conceal child sex crimes because they can," said David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "So any 'reform' that doesn't diminish bishops' power and discretion is virtually meaningless."
And the new Vatican statement will not require bishops to report suspected abusers to the police, he anticipated.
"They aren't binding or mandatory, just suggestions," he said. "Such voluntary 'guidelines' have been widely ignored for years in the past. Top church staff have known of clergy sex crimes and cover ups for decades, if not centuries."
The Catholic Church has been reeling in the face of accusations of child abuse from across the United States and Europe, and stretching back decades.
In the United States, eight Catholic dioceses and one Jesuit order have filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of lawsuits by victims, according to Bishop Accountability, which tracks reports of abuse by priests.
The scandal has now spread to Philadelphia, where four priests and a parochial school teacher pleaded not guilty last month to sexual abuse and conspiracy charges.
A Philadelphia grand jury report released in February led to criminal charges against them by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. All five have also been charged with conspiracy.
A total of 23 priests in the Philadelphia area have been placed on administrative leave.
And a series of government-backed reports in deeply Catholic Ireland found a pattern of abuse and systematic cover-ups by church officials stretching back to the 1930s.
The Vatican says only a tiny percentage of priests abuse children, and that it is taking steps to fight the problem, including defrocking priests or forcing them into positions where they do not have contact with the public.
Pope Benedict XVI issued new rules last year aimed at stopping abuse.
They included doubling the statute of limitations on the church's own prosecution of suspected molesters from 10 to 20 years, making it a church crime for a priest to download child pornography, and allowing the pope to defrock a priest without a formal Vatican trial.
Monday's guidelines, known officially as a Circular Letter from the Vatican to Catholic bishops' conferences around the world, are a follow-up to last year's statement from the pope.
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Post from www.Adamite.com
-- Edited by adamitenews on Monday 16th of May 2011 04:17:00 PM
-- Edited by adamitenews on Monday 16th of May 2011 04:19:22 PM
