(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 27.06.2022).- Two  years after the first edition, the Holy See has published version 2.0 of the “Vademecum on some points of procedure in the treatment of the sexual abuse of minors committed by priests,” a tool elaborated by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, to help Ordinaries and Hierarchs  and their collaborators to handle correctly, from the canonical point of view, delicate situations in which a priest is accused of crimes against minors — against the Decalogue’s Sixth Commandment.

The text, which doesn’t have the force of law, intends to respond to a growing need of knowledge of the practice by those called to handle, in their different functions, the situations described. 

The first edition (July 16, 2020) already anticipated  future updates. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith points out how its diffusion has contributed to normalize the practice, to form professionals, and to resolve questions that the legal texts do not respond to adequately. 

The updating of the first edition became necessary especially because of the coming into force of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law and of the “Norms on Crimes Reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (December 8, 2021), of the Motu Proprio “Fidem Servare” (February 14, 2022) and “Competentias Quasdam Decernere” (February 15, 2022) and, finally, of the Apostolic Constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” (June 5, 2022). 

In the work of revision, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith took very much into account — among other things –, the different contributions of academic centers and of studies on the matter that have reached the Holy See over the last two years, as well as the constant comparisons with the ecclesial realities concerned for a long time in this area, whose suggestions have been a valuable opportunity to clarify certain points and improve the text. 

At the editorial level, the same numbering has been kept as in the first version, in order to facilitate access to the different topics by those already familiarized with the Vademecum. 

This Document can be consulted at: https:www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/ddf/rc_ddf_doc_20220605_vademecum-casi-abuso-2.0_en.html

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