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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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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