London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
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"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
Jellyfish Swarm Triggers Shutdown at Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in Northern France
×