New Norms on Grave Delicts Committed by Clerics

The Holy See has published new legal norms for handling clerical abuse of minors and other “exceptionally serious” crimes committed by clerics. Added to the list is the attempted ordination of a woman. This last is already the cause of sarcastic snarking at “the Vatican” by progressivist secularists and their ideological twins, liberal Catholics. “How can you equate raping a boy with ordaining a woman who wants to serve Christ’s faithful? … etc., etc.”

Catholic World News has covered the story. Phil Lawler had already correctly warned that the media would misrepresent the rumored story when it finally came out. He’s not a prophet; he just knows the media. Lawler today suggested some methods by which the Holy See could have spared themselves at least some of this tendentious reportage.

One thing I find worthy of note in all this business is a single paragraph from the surprisingly detailed historical narrative supplied by the Vatican Press Office. The criticisms that have been leveled for decades by frustrated clergy and laity at the lax handling of clerical abusers find an echo here:

The period between 1965 and 1983 (the year when the new Latin Code of Canon Law appeared) was marked by differing trends in canonical scholarship as to the scope of canonical penal law and the need for a de-centralized approach to cases with emphasis on the authority and discretion of the local bishops. A “pastoral attitude” to misconduct was preferred and canonical processes were thought by some to be anachronistic. A “therapeutic model” often prevailed in dealing with clerical misconduct. The bishop was expected to “heal” rather than “punish”. An over-optimistic idea of the benefits of psychological therapy guided many decisions concerning diocesan or religious personnel, sometimes without adequate regard for the possibility of recidivism.

A big “oops!” that had to be said. Hopefully, with these new norms, things will change. By the way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith now has “the right, as mandated by the Roman Pontiff, to judge Cardinals, Patriarchs, Legates of the Apostolic See, [and] Bishops.” That’s teeth. That’s good.