ROME (ITALY)
The Tablet (U.K.)
By Christopher Lamb
July 16, 2020
The Vatican has issued a detailed guide for how Church leaders should handle allegations of abuse by clergy against children.
The handbook, a Vademecum, sets out how bishops and religious superiors should investigate abuse, including the obligation to report allegations to civic authorities.
Although the instruction manual effectively summarises existing laws, it is the first time the Vatican has published how the internal Church process for investigating and prosecuting abuse cases works. This tool was proposed by the landmark abuse summit which took place in the Vatican on 21-24 February 2019, in the latest attempt to forge a unified Church response to the abuse crisis.
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