"In some of the cases with adults involving clerics it could be consensual sex, anonymous [sex], but also involving adult pornography. There is a whole different set of circumstances that need to come into play here as it is examined, and a whole different skill set as well."
Collins made a similar observation to CNA, noting that "it would be totally wrong in my view to treat incidents of priests indulging in sexual activity with other adults where there is no abuse of power, alongside cases where there is vulnerability involved."
"One is a moral question involving breach of vows," Collins said, "the other is an abuse issue where harm has been caused to the other."
The new working definition approved by the pope Friday appears very broadly drawn, with vulnerability covering anyone who "even occasionally" has a limit on their ability to "intend or to want or in any way to resist" the sexual contact.
When this expanded definition is placed within the context of clericalism, often cited as a major contributing factor to clerical sexual abuse, many canonists privately note it would be hard to conceive of a sexual relationship involving a priest which couldn't be argued to rise to the level of abusive.
For the moment, the new definition only applies to the Vatican City State and Roman Curia. But ahead of last month's global summit on sexual abuse convened by the pope, Vatican spokesmen noted that the real work of effecting reform would come not from the meeting itself, but during the follow-up to it.
With investigations currently open into allegations of sexual misconduct in a number of seminaries in the United States, including in Boston, Philadelphia, and Newark, a revised definition of "vulnerable" adult in those cases could open wide a new front in the Church's drive to eliminate sexual abuse.
Ed Condon is a canon lawyer and worked as Catholic News Agency's Washington DC editor until December 2020.