ITALY
National Catholic Reporter
Carol Glatz Catholic News Service | Apr. 4, 2014
ROME The Italian bishops’ conference encouraged its members to cooperate with civil authorities in cases of clerical sexual abuse, but said the bishops have no legal obligation to report abuse allegations to the police or other civil authorities.
In addition, the new Italian church norms say the bishops “are exonerated” from releasing to the state documents in their possession or information connected with abuse cases.
Because a bishop is not a public official and is not charged with duties of “public service, he does not have the juridical obligation — save for a moral duty to contribute to the common good — to report to civil judicial authorities news he has received concerning illicit matters” of sex abuse, the guidelines said.
The guidelines are the first national norms published by the Italian bishops’ conference for dealing with the sexual abuse of minors by priests. The guidelines were published on the conference website March 28 after being approved by the bishops in January.
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