VATICAN CITY — The Vatican told bishops around the world on Monday that they must make it a global priority to root out sexual abuse of children by priests.Read the rest here.
The headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church told bishops in a letter that they should cooperate with civil authorities to end the abuse that has tarnished its image around the world.
"This is telling the world that we mean business. We want to be an example of prevention and care," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The letter is intended to help every diocese draw up its own tough guidelines, based on a global approach but in line with local criminal law. These must be sent to the Vatican for review within a year.
"The responsibility for dealing with delicts (crimes) of sexual abuse of minors by clerics belongs in the first place to the diocesan bishop," the letter says.
It incorporates sweeping revisions made last year to the Church's laws on sexual abuse, which doubled a statute of limitations for disciplinary action against priests and extended the use of fast-track procedures to defrock them.
But the suggestions in the letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are vague and nonbinding and contain no enforcement mechanisms to ensure bishops actually draft the guidelines or follow them.
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8 comments:
Vatican "encourages" bishops to repport sex abuse? I thought the Vatican could command them to.
The guidelines are non-binding? Why? Vague? What for?
What kind of a use of "papal supremacy" is this???
Ummm yea. I kinda noticed that too.
Anastasia,
This other article I read is more clear. It commands them.
Vatican orders world’s bishops to draw up guidelines on abuse
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/05/16/vatican-orders-worlds-bishops-to-draw-up-guidelines-on-abuse/
They are encouraged to visit the families of victims.
Non-binding simply means, there is nothing set in stone, because they have to abide by the laws in their respective countries on criminal issues.
The issue has always been with the local Bishops and not the Pope, something I have been saying all along.
Savvy
Rome needs to man up in so many ways.
Bob,
A quick question. How big is the Liberal movement in Orthodoxy.?
It's seems like the Anglicans I talk to think Orthodoxy is somehow more softer on issues than Rome, because they don't have a Pope.
Savvy
Savvy,
Liberal and conservative are rather relative terms in Orthodoxy. Sort of the inverse of the Episcopal church, where a "conservative" clergy person might have some qualms about marrying two dudes or giving communion to someone not baptized.
The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that would pass for liberal would be the (controversial) suggestion that non-abortificient birth control can be permissible in some circumstances within a marriage (male-femal only).
Beyond which there is the old adage that in Orthodoxy a liberal priest may wear a roman collar and "priest suit." While a radical liberal might own a razor. This is a church where riots have occurred over calendars. "Liberal" is a very very relative term here.
Rome cannot merely issue a blanket command for every diocese on the planet to cooperate with local authorities. Recall that many Christians live under persecution and oppressive regimes that cannot be trusted to secure justice.
It seems Orthodox yell when the pope goes all Innocent III on a bishop and then yell again when he doesn't and never take the time to understand the bigger picture.
Savvy, the bishops aren't commanded to report sex offenders to local authorities. They need to be so commanded.
MP, that's no excuse. Rome could always put in a clause that says a bishop may apply for an official exception if his diocese is within an oppressive regime.
Rome just isn't stamping on this hard enough, not nearly hard enough, and this is very puzzling, and troubling, too.
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