The Vatican published guidelines for bishops and other senior officials on Thursday on how to deal with child sex claims within the clergy.
The manual includes a form to be filled out detailing the alleged crime against minors. It also urged leaders to be serious about perceived small offenses and recommended going to the police, even if they were not legally required to do so.
It contains more than 160 guidelines for conduct, including not ignoring anonymous allegations, social media posts accusing a church member of misconduct, or allegations outside of the statute of limitations.
While the manual does not have the force of a new law in the church, it goes beyond the current policy on cooperating with law enforcement. That policy required bishops and religious superiors to report allegations only when legally required to.
The manual states: “Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.”
Bishops can be prosecuted canonically for negligence if they do not take accusations seriously.
The request for this tool was made during the global Meeting of the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences on the Protection of Minors held in the Vatican in February 2019.
