PopeFrancis has issued a new church law requiring all Catholic priests and nuns to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups to church authorities.
Pope Francis does the sign of the cross during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Picture: Alessandra Tarantino/APFrom left, Malta's Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti and Mons. Juan Ignacio Arrieta talk to journalists during a press conference to present the new sex abuse law at the Vatican's press room. Picture: Andrew Medichini/APMons.
"People must know that bishops are at the service of the people," said Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's longtime sex crimes prosecutor. "They are not above the law, and if they do wrong, they must be reported." "Until heads roll, until bishops are fired — plain and simple — they'll continue to ignore and conceal clergy sex crimes," he said.
The law says victims can't be forced to keep quiet, even though the investigation itself is still conducted under pontifical secret. And in a novelty, the law requires that if victims request it, they must be informed of the outcome of the investigation — again a response to longstanding complaints that victims are kept in the dark about how their claims were handled.
Unless the metropolitan bishop finds the claim "manifestly unfounded," he must immediately ask permission from the Vatican to open a preliminary investigation and must hear back from Rome within 30 days — a remarkably fast turnaround for the lethargic Holy See. The metropolitan bishop then has an initial 90 days to conduct the investigation, though extensions are possible.
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