Vatican City, Jul 17, 2010 / 20:11 pm
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said Saturday that the new norms on sexual abuse are an "important step," but, he warned, law "is not everything" in the battle against serious sins. He observed that the Church's path to a "purer and more evangelical witness" will not be short.
Fr. Lombardi reflected on the effects of the updates to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) norms concerning the "most serious" sins on his weekly Vatican Television editorial "Octava dies." The details of the updates were released during a press briefing he gave on Thursday with CDF promoter of justice, Msgr. Charles Scicluna.
In his editorial, the Vatican spokesman said that with the publication of the norms, "the Church has taken an important step in addressing the question (of sexual abuse) with responses that will be lasting and have a profound impact.
"Clear and well-known laws are an essential guide for any large community, such as the Catholic Church, which must have its own common rules." These rules remain autonomous from those of the many countries in which they exist, he explained, adding that "the just civil laws must obviously be respected and put into practice by men of the Church, as by every citizen, also for the crimes of abuse."