The Plenary Assembly of Bishops has approved the Instruction on Sexual Abuse of Minors and Vulnerable Persons, a document that serves as a "guide" for dioceses and religious congregations on how to act when a case is reported.

It was announced at a press conference by the secretary general of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), César García Magán, who explained that the instruction includes the canonical norms on abuse and serves as "help material" for those who receive notification of a possible case.

As he has detailed, the document is "a kind of guide" on how to act when a signal has been received.

The first step is to carry out a preliminary investigation, then the Holy See is informed, which is the one that determines whether to carry out a criminal process or through administrative channels and indicates the steps to follow, as well as the precautionary measures that must be imposed.

The EEC has been working since 2019 on this instruction and García Magán recalled that the Plenary Assembly of November 2022 approved 'Guidelines' for action in cases of sexual abuse against minors that would be applied jointly in all dioceses.

In this Assembly it is approved as Instruction for the Church and updated with the new provisions established in the definitive text of 'Vos estis Lux mundi', approved by Pope Francis and which will enter into force on April 30.

This document, which will be updated every time the current canonical norms change, "reinforces the normative aspect of the document that will have the force of norms and not only of orientations," he stressed.

Thus, it will be mandatory both for the dioceses and for the laity who are at the head of religious institutions.

In addition, during the meeting of the Plenary Assembly, the bishops addressed the project of the "Corridors of Hospitality", which is coordinated by the Department of Migration of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care and Human Promotion and which has already been launched with pilot experiences aimed at young migrants who are left out of protection mechanisms.

Bishops ask to ban surrogacy outside Spain

The Spanish bishops have also warned that surrogacy is "unequivocally" a "new form of exploitation of women" and have called for a law that "prevents" this practice not only in Spain but also abroad.

"Surrogacy is, unequivocally, a new form of exploitation of women, contrary to the dignity of the human person, since it uses the female body, and her whole person, reducing her to being a human incubator," they stress in a note from the Episcopal Commission for the Laity, Family and Life, approved this Friday by the bishops. during the Plenary Assembly.

They also add that with the so-called "surrogate uterus" maternity becomes "an object of commerce, which is bought and sold."

At the same time, the prelates point out that "there is no right to procreation and therefore a right to the child" and call for protecting the best interests of the child.

For all these reasons, they believe that "legislation is necessary to prevent this practice of surrogacy", which although it is already illegal in Spain, is allowed in other countries.

"It speaks not only for Spain, but also with a general sense, there are countries that have approved, others do not," said the secretary general and spokesman of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), this Friday, at the final press conference of the Plenary Assembly of the bishops.

In any case, he has specified that the note does not mention "any concrete or media case" although these "reflections" are published a few weeks after the news of the surrogacy of the presenter Ana Obregón, and have wanted the voice of the Church to be heard within the social debate raised by this case.

  • Pope Francis I
  • Sexual Abuse

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