Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Vatican publishes manual to handle complaints of sexual abuse in the Church

Vatican publishes manual to handle complaints of sexual abuse in the Church

The Vatican published this Thursday on the initiative of Pope Francis a manual for ecclesiastics with directives on the procedure to follow when investigating cases of alleged sexual abuse against minors within the Church.
The Argentine pope, who has made the fight against sexual assaults in the Catholic Church one of the priorities of his pontificate, convened in February 2019 an unprecedented summit that brought together 114 presidents of episcopal conferences.

On that occasion he promised to give uniform directives for the Church, mentioning legal references already in force at the civil and canonical level.

The documents published on Thursday do not propose new rules, nor do they pretend that the justice of the Catholic Church replaces civil justice, stresses the Vatican.

Assembled in a vademecum, these documents constitute an 'instrument' intended to help local Church authorities in the 'delicate task of correctly carrying out cases' involving priests 'when they are accused' of child abuse, explained the Spanish cardinal Luis Ladaría Ferrer, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a statement.

The Vatican drafted a form to report the crime. The person responsible must report the identity of the suspect priest, his different ministries, the date of the events and the name of the alleged victim or victims, the measures adopted by the ecclesiastical authority as well as, in case of criminal procedure, the name of the prosecutor and appointed attorneys.

The Vatican text is important, not because it gives new norms (...) but because it is a way of systematizing, of putting together the rules in which the bishops of the whole world were a little lost, said Nicolas Senèze, Vatican correspondent for the French Catholic daily La Croix.

Before there were norms but the texts were extremely different, they were old, and then they were renewed; the bishops were lost, he added.

For several years, the Catholic Church has been in a storm with constant revelations of scandals of pedophile aggressions committed over decades by priests, often covered by the hierarchy in various countries, in particular the United States, Chile or Germany.

Pope Francis, for whom these drifts make the clergy 'an instrument of Satan', went one step further in December by lifting the pontifical secret, although he kept a minimum of confidentiality.

The papal secret, also sometimes called the pope's secret, is a confidentiality standard that protects sensitive information regarding the direction of the universal Church.

Without this secret, the complaints, the testimonies, the accusations have to be transmitted to the courts.

However, the sovereign pontiff has affirmed on many occasions that there is a limit that cannot be crossed: the secrecy of confession remains absolute, which, in fact, excludes any accusation based on an admission made in the confessional.

The directives published on Thursday confirm this: Information on 'delictum gravius' [serious crime] that has been known in a confession is under the strictest sacramental secrecy.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×