- Title: VATICAN: Vatican tell bishops to root out sexual abuse
- Date: 17th May 2011
- Summary: PILGRIMS AND TOURISTS IN ST. PETER'S SQUARE
- Embargoed: 1st June 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Vatican City State
- Country: Vatican City State
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA4KV2I2CI17GR3J23UEDL6FKR9
- Story Text: The Vatican issues a letter to bishops that makes rooting out sexual abuse by clerics a priority. But pilgrims in St Peter's Square say they want Church authorities to do more.
The Vatican on Monday (May 16) told bishops around the world they must make rooting out sexual abuse of minors by priests a global priority for the good of the Church and should cooperate with civil authorities.
The Vatican's latest attempt to deal with the sexual abuse crisis that has given it a black eye around the world came in the form of a circular letter to bishops to help them formulate local guidelines for dealing with the crisis.
The letter from the Vatican's doctrinal department is intended to help each diocese around the world formulate and apply tough standards for their guidelines that are global in emphasis but intertwined with local civil legislation.
They will have to submit their guidelines to the Vatican for review within a year and the letter makes clear that the local bishop will be responsible for implementing them.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna, one of the men who substantially helped to write the letter, described it as an attempt to put together 'best practice' guidelines to help create a safe environment for minors.
"The circular letter intends to help individual bishops around the world to develop guidelines on how to process cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics, by priests. And also to produce a set of best practice guidelines which would insure the creation of safe environments for young people in the Church," Scicluna told Reuters.
Scicluna, who is Justice Promoter at the Vatican's doctrinal department, added that the Church will put much effort in the formation of priests and in the early detection of signs of abuse.
"(The letter) talks about the formation of communities and clerics, the ability to recognise the signs of abuse, because that's the first point in adequately responding to abuse. But also, future formation of priests, respect of boundaries, and also human formation which would assure that priests have the necessary skills to lead celibate lives as they should," Scicluna said.
Scicluna said that one of the most important aspects of the letter is that it states how the protection of minors is paramount for the Church.
"(The letter states) that the protection of minors is a paramount consideration when you talk of the common good of the Church. There is no common good of the Church, or the institution or the people of God, which is different than the protection of minors and care taking of any victims," he said.
Reuters Vatican correspondent Philip Pullella said the letter is likely to have long-term effects.
"It is telling bishops that this is a priority, it is a priority now, it will have to be a priority in the future. It also says, you must look much closer and be more discerning about the men you allow to become priests," Pullella said.
"You want to know now whether they have any problems in their present or in their past that is going to make to possibly make them turn into child sexual abusers. Weed them out now, before the problem starts," Pullella added.
But many of the pilgrims and faithful visiting St. Peter's Square on Monday did not seem impressed with the letter and said they thought the Vatican should do more to root out sexual abuse by clerics.
"It is really very little what (the Church) has done so far. For me it is a scandal. It is more of a scandal when the Church does it than when individuals do it, because the individuals act on their own account but the Vatican acts in the name of the whole Church which is worse. It is a scandal that they do not punish more toughly those who misbehave," said Anastacia Mellar, from Vigi, in Spain.
"They have not done enough until the problem is over. So, no, they should keep pushing it and sort the good priests from the bad priests. That's it," said Catherine Mugford from north London, in England.
The letter says each bishop has a duty "to give an appropriate response to the case of sexual abuse of minors by clerics in his diocese"
In other parts of the letter the Vatican tells bishops they must be prepared to listen to the victims and their families and be committed to their spiritual and psychological assistance.
It says local bishops must be more careful in choosing candidates for the priesthood in order to weed out early those who are or could become sex abusers.
The letter also says that while those accused of being sexual abusers had to be treated fairly and with due process, those who are known to be abusers must be excluded from the public ministry.
In many of the cases of sexual abuse around the world, local bishops allowed known abusers to be moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked.
The revisions introduced last year allow bishops to defrock priests where evidence of sexual abuse is clear without canonical (ecclesiastical) trials, which can be lengthy and costly. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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