Vaticans Rules on Abuse the Right Steps or Baby Steps, USA Today, July 16, 2010

Vatican's Rules on Abuse -- the Right Steps or Baby Steps?

USA Today
July 16, 2010

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/07/vaticans-rules-on-abuse----the-right-steps-or-baby-steps/1

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi gestures as he gives a press conference in the Vatican on July 15. The Vatican issued today new rules on the handling of abuse cases amid a worldwide scandal, ordering quicker investigations of pedophile priests and extending the statue of limitations. Announcing the measures in a bid to fend off accusations of high-level complency, the church also classified child pornography as a crime and made the abuse of mentally handicapped people a crime as serious as pedophilia.

Yesterday, the Vatican unveiled revisions to procedures for handling sex abuse cases, but rather than breaking new ground, they mostly clarify and consolidate existing practices, according to the National Catholic Reporter:

Unveiled on July 15, the changes include:

-Speeding up the process of "laicization," or formal removal from the priesthood;

-Allowing laity to serve as judges and lawyers on church tribunals in sex abuse cases, and waiving the requirement of a doctorate in canon law;

-Extending the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases from 10 to 20 years, with the possibility still in force to waive it altogether on a case-by-case basis;

-Adding the acquisition, possession or distribution of child pornography as a "grave crime" under church law;

-Specifying that the same penalties for the sexual abuse of minors also apply to developmentally disabled adults;

-Clarifying that even "cardinals, patriarchs, legates of the Apostolic See and bishops" are subject to the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal office, on matters related to sexual abuse.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi called the revisions "a contribution to clarity and certainty... in a field in which the church is strongly committed today to proceeding with rigor and transparency."

While some praised the reforms, others derided them as baby steps -- too little, too late.

But Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org equated the changes to "bringing a toy shovel to an avalanche." She suggested a set of "meaningful" changes the church could implement:

He could direct bishops to report every allegation of child sexual abuse to the police, regardless of whether civil law requires them to do so. He could threaten punishment of any bishop or church official who enables or fails to stop a child-molesting priest. He could command bishops to stop lobbying in civil legislatures to prevent reforms of child abuse laws. He could commit to publishing the names of all clergy named in credible allegations and demand that every bishop do the same.

Dan Bartley, president of Voice of the Faithful (a Catholic group devoted to supporting survivors of sexual abuse and reforming Church policies) called the reforms "timid":

Even the Vatican's internal prosecutor, monsignor Charles Scicluna, acknowledges that the new rules alone accomplish nothing. The church's statute of limitations should be eliminated totally for sex abuse of children. There should also be zero tolerance with any matters related to clergy abuse, as provided in the American Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The revisions also added several new offenses to the category of "grave crimes," including the ordination of women. This led to some to say that the Vatican equated the ordination of women to the abuse of children. On BeliefNet.com, to Mark Silk suggests the decree on ordination of women may have been the document's main business, with measures against sexual abusers added to score PR points.

But Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, defended the inclusion of ordination of women:

The Vatican's clarification today of the seriousness with which it holds offenses against the Sacrament of Holy Orders is a welcome statement. The seven sacraments are an integral and identifying part of the Catholic Church and the faith life of each Catholic. To feign any sacrament would be egregious. The Catholic Church through its long and constant teaching holds that ordination has been, from the beginning, reserved to men, a fact which cannot be changed despite changing times.