Pope Francis has ordered a

reform of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

to, among other things, streamline processes on disciplinary issues, such as

cases of abuse

that overwhelm the Church.

The pontiff has drafted the "motu proprio" (papal document)

"Fidem servare"

(Serve faithfully) to modify the

internal structure

of this Congregation that is in charge of watching over the faith and that is currently in the hands of the Spanish Jesuit Luis Ladaria Ferrer, his prefect.

The text, released this Monday by the Holy See but dated February 11,

clearly separates the two powers of the body

, the "doctrinal", which deals with the protection of faith, and the "disciplinary", which regulates crimes. against morality.

Francis does not specifically refer in the

document to the cases of sexual abuse

of minors that shake the Church.

but the restructuring of the old Holy Office has a lot to do with it, since cases come to its rooms from all over the world.

The disciplinary section

The reform establishes that the prefect of the Congregation will be

assisted by a secretary

at the head of each of the two sections of this entity, heir to the medieval Inquisition.

The disciplinary part will be in charge of managing

all the crimes dealt with by the Congregation

through the jurisdiction of the Supreme Apostolic Court, and this is where the thorny issue of cases of sexual abuse or abuse of power by clergy comes in.

Last December, Francis promulgated a new version of the "

norms on the most serious crimes

reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith", that is, "los delicta graviora", which harm the Roman Church in a particular way.

And on October 11, 2021, he had rewritten the crimes for which the Doctrine of the Faith could

judge cardinals, patriarchs,

apostolic legates and bishops, among other members of the high hierarchy.

Article 6 of this "vademecum" establishes as

a "serious crime against decency"

the violation of the Sixth Commandment ("You shall not commit impure acts") by a cleric against a minor under eighteen years of age or persons with some type of intellectual disability.

It also clarifies that

"the ignorance or error

on the part of the cleric regarding the age of the minor constitutes a mitigating factor" in the trial.

The Doctrine of the Faith also judges "the

acquisition, possession, display, or disclosure

, for libidinous purposes or for profit, of pornographic images of minors" by a cleric.

Trials of abuse, streamlined

The pope, separating the two paths of the Congregation, the disciplinary and the doctrinal,

speeds up the processes

: "So that a correct administration of justice can be promoted", Francis writes.

That is to say, each section, equipped with its own secretary,

will have greater autonomy and, presumably,

the processes for abuses, to which Francis does not allude in the text, will be speeded up.

This is because the numerous cases against priests, especially of abuse of minors, were accumulating delays.

Other "delicta graviora" that may be dealt with are those

committed against the faith

, such as heresy, apostasy or schism;

against the Eucharist, such as profanation or sacrilege, or against Penance, such as hearing confessions without permission or ordaining women.

The doctrinal section

The other section, Doctrinal, deals with issues that have to do with the

promotion and protection of doctrine

, faith and morals, and favors relevant studies to spread Catholicism throughout the world, for evangelization.

This section of the Congregation will have the task of studying the

documents published

by other bodies of the Roman Curia and the texts or opinions that are "problematic" for a "straight" faith.

The battle against abuse continues

Francis is still immersed in the solution of the greatest concern for the Holy See, the

abuse scandals that

have arisen throughout the planet, in Chile, Spain, France, Germany, the United States, Ireland or Poland.

"It is the moment of shame"

, assured the pontiff in the general audience on October 6, referring to the "inability of the Church" to manage cases of pederasty after hearing a report on this scourge by the French clergy, which revealed the existence of 330,000 cases since 1950 within the Church.

A problem that has even disturbed the retirement of

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

, pointed out by another investigation in the Munich diocese and which assures that he was aware of four cases of pedophile priests when he was archbishop there.

"Once again I can only express to all victims of sexual abuse

my deep shame, my great pain

and my sincere request for forgiveness. I have had a great responsibility in the Catholic Church," Ratzinger, 94, confessed.

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Know more

  • Religion

  • Pope Francis I

  • sexual abuse

VaticanThe Pope confers for the first time on women the ministry of readers and acolytes in the Vatican

GermanyPope Benedict XVI did not act in four cases of sexual abuse, according to a report by the German Church

PoliticsPablo Casado asks to investigate all cases of pederasty and not just those of the Church

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