Pope Francis issues groundbreaking law that priests, nuns must report sex abuse, cover-up

AP via News Record ^ | 5/9/18 | AP

[Rebelbase]

VATICAN CITY

[Rebelbase]

Yeah, that ought to fix the problem.

[Rebelbase]

Excerpted due to AP.

[Macoozie]

Why not report criminal activity to the police?
No, no, no . . .
That’s just too simple.

[neverevergiveup]

It’s a start. The question is how do you enforce this within the Church? What are the consequences for cover up?

[acapesket]

the Pope is an A**

[ealgeone]

Rome is still refusing to deal with its internal problems.

[Campion]

Why not report criminal activity to the police?

If civil laws were broken *and* the person in question knows that or (even better) has evidence of it, that should happen also.

However, keep in mind a couple of things:

1. There are offenses that are not necessarily offenses under civil law that are still serious offenses under church law.
2. The church can and should, e.g., remove a man from the priesthood under a much lower burden-of-proof standard than the civil law requires for conviction. You have a right, under the civil law in the US, to go free until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers. A priest's right to remain in active ministry can be taken away with a much lower standard of proof.

[Sacajaweau]

It should be reported to the Police. Priests are not exempt from Civil Law.

[ronnie raygun]

YEAH OK

[RoosterRedux]

Virtue Signaling Smoke Screen.

Whenever he thinks he's getting into trouble (in this case the issue is the letter sent re: his heresy), he pulls a stunt to confuse those who are just beginning to see the truth about him.

He is not only evil...he is devilishly clever.

[Vaquero]

Exactly. The police and DA should be informed immediately!!

This is a CRIME first. The HR implications are of Church concerns only.

[Mom MD]

1. This is about 50 years too late. I am appalled such a rule did not exist already

2. Do they really think reporting it confidentially to the peeps of higher rank will help? Try mandating reporting it to the police!

[Mom MD]

Should be perps or higher rank

[Campion]

Why do you think this in any way implies that anyone is exempt from the civil law?

It's traditional Catholic moral teaching that just civil laws (and a law, e.g., against the sexual abuse of a minor is certainly a just law) require obedience under pain of sin, including mortal sin if the issue at question is a grave one.

This doesn't abrogate that.

[bert]

When a priest sexually harasses a transgender nun, should the nun protest to the Archbishop

[Campion]

From the article:

But it does for the first time put into universal church law that they must obey civil reporting requirements where they live, and that their obligation to report to the church in no way interferes with that.

This makes something that was only implicit into an explicit requirement. That's a good thing, IMO.

[yldstrk]

Well, it’s about gd time. I had no idea they weren’t reporters. I think actually the ones that teach have been mandated reporters for years and have refused to do their duty to report. Any nun or priest that knew about it and didn’t report it ought to be charged and prosecuted.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the most disgraceful aspects of many of the early public cases of priest abuse was that the CIVIL authorities were complicit in covering a lot of them up, too.

There was a notorious case in New Orleans back in the 1980s where it was pretty much admitted that the DA Harry Connick Sr. (yes, the father of singer Harry Connick Jr.) refused to act on credible reports of child sex abuse in the Diocese of New Orleans.

[tinyowl]

"It's not just a law, but a profound responsibility."

They talk about this like it's a wonderful and courageous ground breaking step.

"Not diddling kids" is NOT a 'profound responsibility' or a 'strict rule' as they call it earlier in the article. Rather, the opposite; diddling kids is sociopathic.

When your standard of great virtue, in an organization that should have the HIGHEST standards of virtue is "we're making a modest effort to stop being sociopathic hypocrites and ruining thousands of kids' lives each year", then that's like a hospital priding itself on stabbing fewer patients to death as they arrive at the hospital.

[Campion]

What do you want them to say or do?

Abuse of minors is way, way, down in the American church since 2002. That's due largely to what the American bishops did at that time, with a little "encouragement" from insurance companies. It's too bad it required the insurance companies to make them see the seriousness of the situation, but it's a good thing they took some actions that are having some positive impact.

It's also a good thing to have whistle-blower protections written into church law. This reg does that, and that's good.

It's also a good thing to make it clear that sexual harassment or intimidation of adults, including seminarians, priests, and nuns, by superiors, including bishops, is not to be tolerated, and that those who report it will have some formal, written protections in the law.

It's a positive development. Not perfect, just positive.