Vatican to standardise Professional Standards guidelines for dealing with abusive priests
THE Vatican will prepare a set of new, more efficient measures to prevent sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Catholic news agency Rome Reports said.
The norms will be based on those adopted in the US following the abuse scandal of 2002 in that country, which have been credited with decreasing the number of sex abuse cases and have helped to teach over six million students how to recognise and report abuse, and also requires Church employees to undergo a background check.
Similar measures have been implemented in the United Kingdom and will soon be implemented in Germany where the local Church has over the past few months been beset with claims of abuse that occurred in the 1980s, and Austria, where at least 300 alleged clergy sexual abuse cases have been registered since February. It is understood that Professional Standards in the Church in Australia are consonant with those outlined by Rome Reports.
Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the Secretary for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), is in charge of crafting the new rules which include a “fast path” to defrock priests who have been found guilty of abuse, according to Italian press reports.
The guidelines also include temporarily suspending priests who are under investigation, and reporting cases to police will be mandatory, as will the handing over of any documents relating to the investigation by Church authorities.
Unlike civil law, however, the Church will not establish a Statute of Limitations, so guilty priests can be punished even after many years of having committed the crimes. To get to the root of the problem, seminarians will face a more rigorous screening process, which will include psychological tests on their affectivity and maturity. The Vatican will be in charge of ensuring all Bishops follow the rules so that Bishops’ conferences can take responsibility in combating and preventing abuse; those who cover up cases or do not implement the rules in a timely manner will be held accountable.
These new rules will complement those already in place. A department within the CDF made up to 10 people is in charge of investigating severe cases, and over the past nine years has investigated some 3000 cases of priests who have allegedly committed crimes over the past 50 years.
The number or reported cases in the Church is declining. While in the past two years, 250 cases were reported annually globally, the CDF suspects there could be more, as in countries like Italy a “culture of silence still exists”. There has been no formal announcement of the norms.
In 2001, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, suggested that all cases be handled by the CDF rather than the Congregation for Clergy.
Monica Applewhite, a consultant who helped create an accreditation system for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in the US, told the National Catholic Register on 15 April that prior to 2001, cases of sex abuse were sent to the CDF, the Congregation for Clergy and some Religious communities sent cases to their own General Superiors. Since 2001, she said, the system has become much more uniform thanks to then-Cardinal Ratzinger.
She said that, importantly, the CDF gives support and credibility to Bishops and Superiors involved in disciplinary procedures, from removal from ministry to laicisation. Ms Applewhite was involved in US investigations and review of cases to be sent to Rome beginning in 1996, when the process was “very slow, and it was difficult to predict whether the evidence would be considered ‘enough’ for a conviction in the ecclesiastical system”.
Since 2001, the system has become much more uniform, she said. There is a ‘form’ of how to write up the case so all allegations and their outcomes are clearly documented and, with many trials held locally, the process is faster.
In 1992, the US Bishops fist began following ‘The five principles’:
l respond promptly to all allegations of abuse,
l relieve the alleged offender promptly of his ministerial duties and refer him for appropriate medical evaluation and intervention,
l comply with the obligations of civil law in reporting the incident,
l reach out to the victims and their families, and
l deal as openly as possible with the members of the community.
In 2002, Ms Applewhite said, the Bishops and Religious Superiors made commitments that addressed the fact that some leaders had simply elected not to follow the guidance of ‘The Five Principles’.