Pope Francis has updated this Saturday the norms on the treatment of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, expanding its scope to include lay Catholic leaders and specifying that both minors and adults can be victims.
The Pope has renewed a landmark 2019 decree that obliges all priests and members of religious orders to report suspected abuse, and holds bishops directly responsible for any abuse they themselves commit or cover up. The provisions were initially introduced on a temporary basis, but the Vatican has said they will become final on April 30 and will include additional elements aimed at bolstering the fight against abuse within the Church.
Abuse scandals have shattered the Vatican’s reputation in many countries and have posed a major challenge to Pope Francis, who has passed a series of measures over the past 10 years aimed at holding the church hierarchy accountable. Critics say the results have been mixed and have accused Francis of being reluctant to expel abusive prelates.
The new rules now cover leaders of Vatican-sanctioned organizations that are run by lay people, not just priests, following numerous complaints filed in recent years against lay leaders accused of abusing their positions to sexually exploit people. at your expense. While the original standards covered sexual acts directed against “minors and vulnerable persons,” the new version offers a broader definition of victims, referring to crimes committed “with a minor or with a person who habitually has imperfect use of reason or with a vulnerable adult.
The Vatican has said that Church members have an obligation to report cases of violence against nuns by clergy, as well as cases of harassment of adult seminarians or novices.
The updated provisions came a month after the Roman Catholic Jesuit religious order said allegations of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse against one of its leading members were highly credible.
Some 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, 69, a well-known religious artist, of various forms of abuse, either while he was the spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia some 30 years ago. years, or after moving to Rome to continue his career as an artist. Rupnik has not spoken publicly about the accusations, which have rocked the world order, of which the Pope is a member.
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