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Pope Francis smiles as he arrives to
attend a two-day summit of judges and magistrates against human trafficking and
organized crime, at the Vatican, Friday, June 3, 2016. Judges and prosecutors
from around the world are pledging to crack down on human trafficking and help
victims of modern-day slavery in the latest Vatican initiative to draw
attention to the problem and rally resources to fight it. (AP Photo/Gregorio
Borgia)
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Pope Francis canceled his proposed
tribunal to prosecute bishops who covered up for pedophile priests and instead
laid out legal procedures to remove them if the Vatican finds them negligent.
The new procedures, hopefully, serves
as an answer to the long awaited demands by the survivors of abuse. Victims have
long accused bishops of covering up for pedophiles, moving rapists from parish
to parish rather than reporting them to police.
But the new law was already being
criticized by survivors of abuse since there were already ways to investigate
and dismiss bishops for wrongdoing. They were just rarely used against bishop
who failed to protect their flocks from pedophiles.
"We're extraordinarily skeptical,"
said David Clohessy of the main U.S. survivor's group known as SNAP (Survivors
Network of those Abused by Priests).
In the law, Francis acknowledged that
the church's canonical code already allowed for a bishop to be removed for
"grave reasons." But he said he wanted to precisely state that
negligence in handling abuse cases counted as one of those reasons.
The statute, though, makes no mention
of a proposal approved by Francis last year to establish an accountability
tribunal section inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to judge
bishops accused of "abuse of office." Francis' sex abuse advisory
board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because
it already oversees actual sex abuse cases against clergy.
Marie Collins, an abuse survivor who
is a member of Francis' abuse advisory board, said it was
"depressing" that the tribunal proposal had stalled. But she said the
new procedures emphasizing negligence show that bishop accountability "has
not been allowed to disappear into the sand."
In the law, Francis said a bishop can
be removed if his actions or omissions cause "grave harm" — physical,
moral, spiritual or financial — to individuals or communities. The bishop
himself doesn't need to be morally guilty. It's enough if he is purely lacking
in the diligence required of his office.
The procedures call for the Vatican to
start an investigation when "serious evidence" is provided that a
bishop was negligent. The bishop can defend himself. At the end of the
investigation, the Vatican can prepare a decree removing the bishop or ask him
to resign.
And any decision to remove the bishop
must be approved by the pope, who will be advised by a college of legal
experts.
Source: Daily Mail
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