Pope extends sex abuse law to cover lay leaders, accepts resignation of German bishop
- Dealing with the scandals of child sex abuse by Catholic priests around the world has been one of the biggest challenges for the Pope
- On the day of the amendment, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, criticised for his handling of abuse cases in the Church in the diocese of Osnabrück, resigned
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Pope Francis on Saturday extended a 2019 law to fight sexual abuse in the Catholic Church by making lay leaders responsible for acts committed under their watch in Vatican-approved bodies.
A letter, directly sent by the pontiff, also said that vulnerable adults can be victims of predator priests – adding the vulnerability clause. The earlier version had only spoken of minors and vulnerable persons.
“The updated text specifies that ‘the lay faithful who are or have been moderators of international associations of the faithful recognised or created by the Holy See [are responsible] for acts committed’ while they were in office”, the Vatican said in a statement. The new law will enter into force on April 30.
“The document includes, and continues to include, not only abuse and violence against children and vulnerable adults, but also covers sexual violence and harassment resulting from the abuse of authority,” the Vatican said.
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From Ireland to Germany and the United States, dealing with the scandals of child sex abuse by Catholic priests has been one of the biggest challenges for the Pope.
Initially, things did not go well, with a 2014 commission on protecting minors undermined by the resignations of two key members, while in 2018, his defence of a Chilean priest accused of covering up abuse sparked a backlash.
The Pope created a commission on protecting minors that was later integrated into the Curia. In 2019, he held an unprecedented summit which heard from victims and he promised an “all-out battle” against clerical abuse.
Concrete changes followed, from opening up Vatican archives to the lay courts to making it compulsory to report suspicions of abuse and any attempts to cover it up to Church authorities. However, anything said in the confessional box remains sacrosanct.
Also on Saturday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the bishop of Osnabrück, a city in northwestern Germany, the Vatican said.
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, who has been criticised for his handling of abuse cases in the Church, will also leave the Osnabrück diocese.
The pontiff accepted a letter of resignation from the bishop, the Vatican announced, without giving further reasons.
A victims’ council accused Bode of declaring a case of sexualised violence against minors as a “relationship” as recently as last year.
In December, the council called in the Vatican and filed a complaint against Bode, saying his attitude was still more perpetrator-oriented than victim-oriented.
Also counting against Bode are his actions regarding cases of abuse in the diocese of Osnabrück. In one case, a priest had been sexually abusing a girl in a parish for years. The experts who drew up a recent report accused Bode of having given the priest a leadership position in youth work in the same year that the girl reported the man to the bishop.
