Sometimes one has to wonder which century the Catholic Church thinks it is living in when media reports such as this are published:
The new rules issued by the Vatican puts attempts at ordaining women among the “most serious crimes” alongside paedophilia and will be handled by investigators from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), considered the successor to the Inquisition.
Women attempting to be priests, and those who try to ordain them, already faced automatic excommunication but the new decree goes further and enshrines the action as “a crime against sacraments”.....
Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, underscored how the ordination of women is “a crime against sacraments,” while paedophilia should be considered a “crime against morals” and both would fall under the jurisdiction of the CDF.
The organisation, which was once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, was previously headed by the current Pope when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Under the term Substantive Norms the Vatican apparently ranks the ordination of women ahead of child abuse as it lists mandatory major excommunication as punishment:
Art. 5
The more grave delict of the attempted sacred ordination of a woman is also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
1° With due regard for can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman, and she who attempts to receive sacred ordination, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
2° If the one attempting to confer sacred ordination, or the woman who attempts to receive sacred ordination, is a member of the Christian faithful subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, with due regard for can. 1443 of that Code, he or she is to be punished by major excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
3° If the guilty party is a cleric he may be punished by dismissal or deposition[31].
Art. 6
§ 1. The more grave delicts against morals which are reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:
1° the delict against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years; in this case, a person who habitually lacks the use of reason is to be considered equivalent to a minor.
2° the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology;
§ 2. A cleric who commits the delicts mentioned above in § 1 is to be punished according to the gravity of his crime, not excluding dismissal or deposition.
Guide to Understanding Basic CDF Procedures concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations:
B3 Disciplinary Measures
In cases where the accused priest has admitted to his crimes and has accepted to live a life of prayer and penance, the CDF authorizes the local bishop to issue a decree prohibiting or restricting the public ministry of such a priest. Such decrees are imposed through a penal precept which would entail a canonical penalty for a violation of the conditions of the decree, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state. Administrative recourse to the CDF is possible against such decrees. The decision of the CDF is final.
A marked feature of the Vatican's stance on admitted child abuse is that there is still no instruction that such abuse should be reported to state secular agencies such as the police or any child welfare authority.
2 comments:
I apologize for the length of my response, but this a serious and nuanced issue that requires a detailed response. I appreciate your time. :)
You seem to be condemning the Vatican's much needed efforts to prevent abusers from continuing based on a few key misunderstandings. I would appreciate the opportunity to explain the Church's actions.
I do not accept child abuse as ever being acceptable, and to someone outside the Church, I can see how these policies may not seem to stress that point. However, I hope that my explanation can shed some light why the Church believes these are necessary steps to take to protect children and other vulnerable people in the Church's care.
First and foremost, abuse of minors is to be handled at the local Bishop, ie, the local bishop is to remove the offending priest from public ministry, and forbid that priest contact with minors.
This church law states that once the priest is removed, ONLY the Vatican can reinstate the offending priest. This is to prevent the local bishop from simply transferring the abuser from parish to parish, as has unfortunately happened. I don't deny many abuses and shelters have occurred, and in recognition of this, the Vatican is taking steps to prevent local Bishop's from doing so.
The Vatican however does not "require" every bishop in the world to report child abuse to the police, because in some countries, the offending priest could face torture or death. The Vatican however is now requiring Bishop in each country to develop policies that address the appropriate response in each country.
In the United States, because we usually don't torture prisoners, the bishops have voted, with the Vatican's approval, to require reporting abusers to the authorities. However, in a country like Pakistan, where "criminals" such as "adulteresses" can be stoned to death, could you really trust the government to not summarily execute the priest or even give him a trial? The Vatican creates world wide policy that must be taylered to local conditions
Finally, when it comes to ordination of woman, the church considers it a case of life (heaven) or death (hell). Its rightly only called a "crime against the sacrament", instead of a "crime against morality", because no one is directly hurt by the ordination, unlike abuse which can destroy the victim's life.
However the church believes that the sacraments impart special graces that bring souls closer to God and away from hell. Anyone pretending to be a priest risks sending people to hell, because the sacraments performed would be invalid. By church teaching, woman can't be priests, so the Vatican has to take a tough stand against them.
It might seem insensitive that the woman's ordination appeared first, but really, its just a law book. The US Code for instance has various crimes and penalties listed in random order, but no one complains. If its not enforced, then we can complain, but focusing such inane details as the order of laws written down simply put distracts from helping the victims heal.
In summary, these policies are broad world wide policies that must be implemented at the local level. The policy requires Bishops to suspend and remove suspected abusers from public ministry, and keep them away from Children the allegations are proven false in trial. In first world countries, we can trust public authorities to fairly prosecute offenders, but the Church exists in some countries that don't have functioning legal systems, and must have provisions to keep abusers away from children is such countries.
Lets not get bogged down by these regulations being in near proximity to regulations concerning woman priests, and focus on helping the victims!
With the greatest of respect, sir, your argument is rejected by this blogger.
As to your interpretation of Church 'law' - a plain reading of the Substantative Norms does not support any assertion that attitudes to abusive clergy has changed in any significant way.
The 'permission' to abuse is historical, institutionalised and may yet survive past the death of exisitng generations of priests if it is addressed with such half-hearted measures as those mentioned in my post.
Allowing bishops discretion in matters of alleged child abuse defies belief in any assertions of good faith on the part of the Vatican.
As for a supposed need to protect clergy in certain countries - if (and it's a big' if) that was a valid reason for the SN articles in question, one would have thought that the Church would have created regulations making mandatory the reporting of suspected offences to police in democratic societies and, allowing for the bishops in countries without robust legal systems to vary provisions requiring such reporting.
The only thing the Church has ever been interested in is sweeping such matters under the carpet and containing the public relations damage when instances of abuse do become public.
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