Rome — Survivors of clergy sexual abuse on Monday called on the Vatican to expand globally the zero-tolerance policy it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002, arguing that children everywhere must be protected from predatory clergy.
Under U.S. regulations adopted at the height of the abuse scandal, even a single act of sexual abuse recognized or established under church law would result in a priest being permanently removed from church ministry.
America’s “one-time strike” policy has long been considered the church’s most hard-line policy. Some hold it as the gold standard, others as excessive, and still others as imperfect but better than most. The bill was adopted by U.S. bishops struggling to restore trust following revelations of abuses and cover-ups in Boston documented by the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series.
Since then, church abuse scandals have erupted around the world, and survivors from around the world said Monday there is no reason why U.S. norms cannot and should not be applied universally. They called for changes to the church’s internal canon law, arguing that they could be approved because the Vatican had already approved the norms of the American church.
“Despite Pope Francis’ repeated calls for zero tolerance for abuse, his words have not yet translated into action.” Gemma Hickey, a transgender survivor of abuse and chair of the global survivor network Ending Clergy Abuse, said:
The proposal, launched at a press conference, took shape in June at a rare meeting in Rome between survivors and top clerical experts on preventing abuse in Catholic hierarchies. Participants at the time described it as a ‘historic collaboration’ between two groups who often underestimate each other, given the victims’ deep distrust of the Catholic hierarchy.
Priests attending the meeting included the Rev. Hans Zollner, who heads the church’s main academic think tank on safeguarding. Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera, second in command of the Vatican’s Advisory Committee on Child Protection; and the Reverend Ulrich Rhode, dean of canon law at the Gregorian University, and diplomats from the United States, Australia and other embassies.
But there appears to be no one in the Vatican’s legal office, the Secretariat of State or the disciplinary department of the Ministry for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles all cases of abuse around the world and secretly sets policy on the Church’s application of canon law. Because the incident was never published.
As a result, it was unclear what would happen to the proposed policy change, given that the U.S. norm was created by angry mobs of U.S. bishops and insurance companies who urged the Vatican’s approval.
Nicholas Capardi, an American canon lawyer who was an original member of the U.S. National Review Committee that provided input on the 2002 U.S. code, said globalizing the policy into universal canon law is one of the logical next steps Francis should take. He said it would happen. Continue the fight against abuse.
But Cafardi, author of “Before Dallas,” an account of the proceedings of the 2002 Dallas bishops’ conference that approved the code, said some bishops today are dissatisfied with how the policy limits their authority and freedom. And in a phone interview, he noted that the norms are still valid in the United States because American bishops continue to formally call for them to be maintained, acknowledging that this is a “weakness” in the system.
“I think good protection is, ‘Let’s just make a universal law,’” Cafardi said. “Once you have that law, you don’t have to worry about bishops requiring it from country to country. It’s just the law.”
But the proposal faces an uphill battle as the Vatican has repeatedly insisted in recent years on “proportionality” in sentencing for abuse, refusing to apply a one-size-fits-all approach and taking into account cultural differences in countries where abuse is permissible. . It is not as openly discussed as in the West.
As a result, seemingly mild punishments have been handed out in the United States, even for cases of abuse that could have resulted in clergy being permanently removed from ministry.
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