Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)

Ius canonicum

MANDATORY REPORTING LEGISLATION AND THE SEAL OF CONFESSION... 133

I. The Catholic Church and the Measures of Prevention of Abuse

Pope John Paul II addressed the problem of abuse beginning with the 1983 Code of Canon Law (i.e. Can. 1392 §2),30 granted the indult raising the age from 16 to 18 to the Church in the United States in 1994 and to Ireland in 1996, and extended the Statutes of Limitations to the 10 years after the victim’s 18th birthday.31 According to the current Code of Canon Law, canonical trials were held in the dioceses, and appeals from judicial sentences were presented to the Rota Romana, whereas administrative recourses against penal decrees were presented to the Congregation for the Clergy.32 Several years later, Pope John Paul II decided to replace the Instruction Crimen sollicitationis with the motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (30 April 2001); the letter signed by Card. Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was sent to all of the Roman Catholic Bishops on 18 May 2001. The Letter included the sexual abuse of a minor under 18 by a cleric, among the new list of canonical delicts (among them indicated also a direct violation of the seal of confession)33 all reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Nine years after the promulgation of the motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith felt it necessary to propose certain changes to these norms, not modifying the text in its entirety, but rather only in a few areas, in an effort to improve the application of the law.

Pope Benedict XVI, first as a head of the CDF and later as pope, issued harsh norms against the perpetrators, removed bishops accused of molesting children or covering up the abuse of their priests, and expedited the process for laicizing and sanctioning priests guilty of sexually abusing minors.34 He gave his approval and ordered the promulgation of the revised norms on graviora delicta on 21 May 2010, which is currently in force.35 Pope Benedict XVI also approved a decision to sanction Fr. Marcial Maciéi Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was accused of sexually abusing minors. Follow-30 “A cleric who in another way has committed an offense against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the delict was committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants”.

31 See The Norms: https://www.vatican.va/resources/resources_introd-storica_en.html

(consulted: 1/20/2022).

32 See The Norms: https://www.vatican.va/resources/resources_introd-storica_en.html

(consulted: 1/20/2022).

33 Direct violation of the Sacramental seal, cf. CIC Can. 1388 §1; CCEO Can. 1456.

34 See https://catholicreview.org/former-doctrinal-enforcer-used-pontificate-to-crack-down-onsex-abuse/ (consulted: 1/20/2022).

35 See The Norms: https://www.vatican.va/resources/resources_introd-storica_en.html

(consulted: 1/20/2022).