Monday, December 16, 2002. Posted: 23:51:06 (AEDT)
Vatican approves US charter on tackling clergy sex abuse The Vatican has approved tough new measures adopted by US bishops to deal with clergy in the United States who commit sexual abuse, the Holy See said in a statement.
The approval for the measures, which include the punishment of dismissal from the clergy, came in a letter from the head of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re to Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the US bishops’ conference.
Cardinal Re said the Vatican was fully supportive of the bishops’ efforts “to combat and to prevent such evil.”
“The universal law of the Church has always recognised this crime as one of the most serious offences which sacred ministers can commit, and has determined that they be punished with the most severe penalties, not excluding – if the case so requires – dismissal from the clerical state,” he said.
The “norms”, aimed at balancing priests’ and alleged victims’ rights, were first submitted to the Vatican last summer, but rejected on October 18 by Pope John Paul II as “vague and imprecise and therefore difficult to interpret”.
In November, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops submitted “revised norms” for approval by the Vatican.
The tough new “norms” on sanctions for clergy who commit sexual abuse state that “even a single act of sexual abuse” by a priest or deacon is punishable, “if the case so warrants” by removal from the ministry, or the priesthood.
It says: “When even a single act of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon will be removed permanently from ecclesiastical ministry, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, if the case so warrants.”
The new policy forbids the transfer of a predator priest to another parish, something the previous policy had only made implicit.
Bishops will no longer be able to cover up criminal acts by a subordinate, a practice which caused the resignation last week of Cardinal Bernard Law as Archbishop of Boston.
The policy states that “no priest or deacon who has committed an act of sexual abuse of a minor may be transferred for ministerial assignment to another diocese/eparchy or religious province.”
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