Vatican City, Jul 15, 2010 / 09:08 am
On Thursday, the Holy See published new norms for the treatment of crimes considered to be "most serious" within the Church. In a press briefing, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi explained the updates, including an extension of the statute of limitations for cases involving the sexual abuse of minors and the official addition of other "delicta graviora" to the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
The release of the updates took place in an unannounced meeting with the press in the Holy See's Press Office, which was hosted by Fr. Lombardi and Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the promotor of justice within the CDF. The modifications are included in 31 articles divided into two parts: Substantive Norms and Procedural Norms.
Fr. Lombardi released a statement meant to facilitate the reading of the norms for the "non-specialist public," in which he outlined the most important elements of the modifications to the "most serious sins" or "graviora delicta." They were originally promulgated by John Paul II in the motu proprio "Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela" in 2001.
According to the Vatican spokesman, the updates to this document were meant to "organically integrate" the "new 'faculties'" given to the CDF by the Pope for the last nine years, "so as to streamline and simplify the procedures and make them more effective and to take account of new problems."