Vatican tightens laws on sex abuse and other crimes

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican published Thursday an updated, stricter set of norms governing how the Catholic Church deals internally with priests and other religious figures linked to crimes such as the sexual abuse of minors and mentally handicapped people.

The norms the Vatican unveiled Thursday also applies to crimes deemed by the church to be “most serious”, such as heresy, apostasy and schism.

Also listed as a “most serious” crime is any attempt to ordinate women as priests, something which is forbidden by Catholic Church teaching.

The measures come amid a series of scandals and widespread criticism of the church’s handling of abuse cases in several countries, including Pope Benedict’s XVI’s native Germany.

However, the main US-based group advocating victims’ rights, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the Vatican is “missing the boat” with the new rules published Thursday.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the new provisions would speed up Church procedures to deal with the “most urgent and serious situations more effectively”, including the removal of offenders from the priesthood.

The norms also bring lay people, or non-priests, into the staff of church tribunals appointed to judge suspected offenders; extend the statute of limitations from 10 to 20 years; and establish parity between the abuse of mentally disabled people and that of minors.

They also introduce the crime of “paedophile pornography”, which is defined as the acquisition, possession or distribution of pornographic images and material.

The norms also clarify that the church’s highest office-bearers, including “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.

“The norm concerning the secrecy of trials is maintained in order to protect the dignity of everyone involved,” Lombardi explained in the statement.

But SNAP said in a statement that “even if these new guidelines are obeyed, their impact on the ongoing crisis is likely to be insignificant.”

SNAP has accused top Catholic officials of deceiving or stonewalling law enforcement officials, and allowing known predator priests to continue operating in church office unsupervised.

“Changing these behaviours, not internal church guidelines, is what is needed,” SNAP said in its statement.

Lombardi stressed that the norms apply to canon law and thus are only concerned with internal Church judicial processes which are mostly conducted by the the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The norms do not deal with cooperation between the church and civil authorities - something advocacy groups such as SNAP have repeatedly demanded.

Lombardi referred to a set of guidelines issued in April to help clarify a controversial 2001 church document which, the Vatican has insisted, specify that bishops who become aware of abuse in their dioceses should cooperate with local civil authorities investigating such cases.

But critics, many of whom have accused clerics of covering up abuse in a bid to save the church’s reputation, said the 2001 document stopped short of clearly ordering bishops and other church officials of reporting all suspected aedophilia cases to the police.