A cleric who sexually abuses a child and a bishop or religious superior who covers up that abuse are personally morally at fault, but the Catholic Church as an institution is not, said Cardinal Julián Herranz, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
Pope Francis has ordered an apostolic visitation “to obtain a comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation” in the Archdiocese of Cologne.
The revised section of the Code of Canon Law dealing with crimes and penalties, including those related to clerical sexual abuse, should be ready for publication before the end of summer.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Chicago’s current cardinal-archbishop, said in an April 9, 2021, address for an international symposium on clergy sex abuse.
In more than seven years as leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has issued numerous new laws and guidelines for handling accusations of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up by church officials.
Beginning the process of restoring normal governance to the dioceses of Chile in the wake of a massive clerical sexual abuse and cover-up scandal, Pope Francis named archbishops for the archdioceses of Santiago and Puerto Montt Dec. 27, 2019.
In a decision published Dec. 17, the pope abolished the obligation of secrecy for abuse victims during Vatican trials and processes.
2019 is Pope Francis’ sixth anniversary as pope, his 83rd birthday and his 50th anniversary as a priest as well as a year confronted with the clerical abuse crisis.
