Vatican City, Jul 15, 2010 / 12:01 pm
During a briefing today with journalists for the release of new norms on cases of "the most serious sins" in the Church, Fr. Federico Lombardi spoke about the work that continues to be done in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). He said that the congregation is working on new, comprehensive documents compiled from the experiences of individual bishops' conferences to create better guidelines for handling abuse cases on a local level.
The announcement came within an officially published comment from Fr. Lombardi, who explained the scope of the direction further during the briefing.
The Vatican spokesman informed reporters that the CDF is "currently examining how to help the bishops of the world formulate and develop, coherently and effectively, the indications and guidelines necessary to face the problems of the sexual abuse of minors, either by members of the clergy or within the environment of activities and institutions connected with the Church ...”
These additional documents, he said, will bear in mind “the situation and the problems of the societies in which they operate."