Pope Francis strengthens measures against pedocrime in the Church

Strengthen and expand the fight against child crime in the Church. This is the purpose of the measures published on Saturday March 25 by the Vatican, in a new motu proprio signed by the pope. In this ten-page legal text, Francis intends to definitively anchor the standards enacted for the first time four years ago, in 2009, in a text entitled “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world” ).

This new version confirms first of all the measures made compulsory at the time, such as those not to leave acts of sexual violence unpunished, by obliging clerks to denounce sexual violence against minors if they “have knowledge” of such acts or “reasonable grounds to believe” that they have been committed. Since then, according to the American site BishopAccountability, around forty bishops have been sanctioned by Rome for not having denounced such acts. According to our information, out of these forty, less than four targeted bishops in place, dismissed from their functions.

Three years after “Vos estis lux mundi”, the fight continues against pedocrime in the Church

The acts targeted are always the same: violence and threats of sexual acts with minors, but also the acquisition, storage and possession of child pornography. And it still plans to entrust exclusively to the disciplinary section of the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith the treatment of these files of paedocriminality, provided that they concern a cleric, the other cases (sexual violence against adults, accusations brought against a layman, abuse of authority without sexual acts…) being examined by the other Roman dicasteries.

Faithful associations

But this new text from the pope, which will come into force on April 30, expands and clarifies the devices in four points. First of all, the most important: the obligation to denounce no longer only concerns crimes committed in dioceses and religious institutes, but also in international associations of the faithful recognized by the Holy See.

This expansion is significant because among the 122 newly concerned movements we find very important associations such as the community of Emmanuel, Shalom, the Chemin-Neuf, the community of Sant’Egidio, Faith and Light, or even the International Union of Scouts and Guides of Europe. Some of them have also been directly affected in recent years by serious abuses, such as the Beatitudes community, the Foyers de Charité and Points-Coeur.

Thus, the priests, monks and nuns who are members of these associations, now have the obligation to denounce to Rome potential sexual crimes committed against minors. As for the laity, and this is the second change brought about by this motu proprio of the pope, they are, from now on, encouraged to do the same. “Anyone, in particular the lay faithful who exercise functions or ministries in the Church, can denounce” a pedocriminal act, states Rome.

“Vulnerable people”

Third change induced by this new text from the pope: in addition to minors, Francis introduces a new category of victims on whom the acts are considered particularly serious: “people who usually have an imperfect use of reason”. This modification corresponds in fact to the application of the reform, which entered into force in December 2021, of the criminal aspect of its internal law.

By making this clarification, the Vatican also wants to limit misinterpretations of the category of “vulnerable persons”, on whom the Church considers it also particularly serious to commit sexual crimes. But in this specific case, the files do not go back to Rome, to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but to other departments of the Roman Curia. A religious accused of sexual abuse of adults, even considered vulnerable, will thus be judged by the dicastery for religious.

Obligation to create an office

Last important modification made by Pope Francis: the nature of the alert cells in the dioceses. Until then, all the bishops of the world had the obligation to create, individually or collectively, “one or more stable systems easily accessible to the public to allow the presentation of reports”. But in recent months, the Vatican has noticed that the word “device” has allowed certain bishops a very broad interpretation of this obligation, and some have contented themselves with creating… a simple e-mail address.

From now on, the dioceses therefore have the obligation to create “organizations” or “offices”, which must be “easily accessible to the public” in order to allow “the receipt of reports” of suspicions of pedophile crimes. “In concrete terms, this means creating a physical place where complaints can be received,” explains Father Andrew Small, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

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This American priest was specifically responsible for overseeing an international audit on the implementation of measures to protect minors, including diocesan and national reporting offices. In all, his office has so far reviewed some 30 guidelines issued by bishops around the world, and a first-ever global assessment is expected to be released next October. A survey conducted by La Croix in 2022 thus highlighted a very wide disparity in the application of Vos estis lux mundi depending on the continent.

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Beyond the evaluation of the existing measures, Rome must also investigate the cases. At the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the “disciplinary section”, in charge of these files, has only grown in recent years, and now has 25 officials who examine all day the accusations of pedocrime committed by clerics. But each of them has about 200 cases on their desks, and processing times can stretch for years. The investigations, which were in theory to be carried out in 90 days, must now be, according to the new text “within a reasonable time”. A way of taking into account a very concrete lack of human resources to properly deal with ongoing cases.

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