BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican Makes Clear Bishops Must Report Sex Abuse; SNAP Responds SNAP April 12, 2010 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2010_statements/041210_vatican_makes_clear_bishops_must_report_sex_abuse_snap_responds.htm Statement by Joelle Casteix of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434). She’s in Newport Beach, California and is the group’s western regional director. Let's keep this in perspective: it's one sentence and it's virtually nothing unless and until we see tangible signs that bishops are responding. One sentence can't immediately reverse centuries of self-serving secrecy. If the Vatican truly wants to change course, it would be far more effective to fire or demote bishops who have clearly endangered kids and enabled abuse and hid crimes, than to add one sentence to a policy that is rarely followed with consistency. (SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org) Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Peter Isely (414-429-7259), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell) http://www.aolnews.com/story/vatican-makes-clear-bishops-must-report/948758 Vatican makes clear bishops must report sex abuse By NICOLE WINFIELD – AP VATICAN CITY -The Vatican responded Monday to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law. Victims have charged that the Catholic Church created what amounted to a conspiracy to cover up abuse by keeping allegations of abuse secret and not reporting them to civil authorities. The Vatican has insisted that it has long been the Catholic Church's policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil laws. In a new guide for lay readers posted on its Web site, the Vatican explicitly spells out such a policy. "Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed," the Vatican guidelines said. That phrase was not included in a draft of the guidelines obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The rest of the guidelines follow previously known and public procedures for handling canonical investigations and trials of suspected abuse. The Vatican offered no explanation for the addition. Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's U.S. attorney, has argued that there was nothing in the canon law that guides the church that precluded reporting. "It's beyond dispute that the canon law does not mandate non-reporting," he said. "These guidelines may help clarify that point for people who are less familiar with canon law." "The statement confirms what has been long known, that where the civil state creates an obligation to report, bishops like anyone else are required to examine the law and determine what they have to do to obey it," Lena told the AP. None of the core public Vatican documents to be applied in cases of abuse direct bishops to report cases to police. Such implicit understanding of the need to follow just civil laws dates to a 1965 document from the Second Vatican Council, Gaudem et Spes. In an agreement worked out with the Vatican, U.S. bishops made this their policy after the explosion of sex abuse cases in 2002. The Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer at Rome's Santa Croce University, called the publication of the policy in the lay guidelines "an important development." "I'm very pleased," he said. "A Christian also has to follow civil laws. It's a Christian duty." A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said the reporting requirement had been the internal policy of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2003. Asked how bishops were supposed to know of this internal policy, he declined to comment. Pope Benedict XVI had told Irish bishops last month that they should cooperate with civil authorities in investigating abuse. But the guidelines mark the first time that such procedures for the universal church, in which bishops are explicitly told they should follow civil reporting laws, have been laid out publicly.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.