Prosecutors say the case is statute-barred, but the Vatican doesn’t agree. Although the former dropped the case of paedophile Thomas Mullen on the grounds that too much time had passed between priest’s alleged offences, the Catholic Church considers the claims serious enough to conduct its own investigation.
The priest is accused of acts of sexual abuse that date back more than 30 years.
The complaints filed by two of the priest’s now 38 year old victims have resulted in Mullen being suspended from his duties as Dunfermline’s parish priest.
The procedure introduced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which updated its rules on “exceptionally serious crimes” two years ago, has begun.
This scandal is yet another test bench for Benedict XVI’s clampdown on paedophilia which has already led to the resignation of about fifty bishops charged with concealing cases of abuse in their dioceses.
The Holy See has published an updated version of the 2001 Delicta graviora laws. The update accompanied the Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, signed by John Paul II in 2001, which addressed the subject of abuse committed by clerics.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explicitly states that in cases of sex abuse of minors by clergy, “civil law must be adhered to in terms of reporting crimes to the relevant authorities.”
New regulations involve fast-tracking procedures for a paedophile priest’s dismissal from the priesthood, the inclusion of child pornography as a crime, prolonging the prescribed period of limitation from ten to twenty years, the inclusion of lay people in ecclesiastical courts dealing with cases of paedophilia and the definition of minors as “persons with limited reasoning capabilities”.
The Vatican attributes the greatest power to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the dicastery responsible for Catholic orthodoxy, which has been headed by Joseph Ratzinger for over two decades.
The new regulations are set out in a Letter addressed to bishops across the world, in implementation of John Paul II’s Motu Proprio Sacramentorum sanctis tutela which in 2001 put the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in charge of the “most serious crimes”.
The regulations on sexual abuse committed by priests against minors, contained in the canon law, were published in an organic and updated form, in a document which sets out all the crimes which the Catholic Church considers to be exceptionally serious and so entrusts them to the Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: other than sexual abuse crimes, it deals with crimes against faith and the sacraments of the Eucharist, of Penance and of Order.
The law on trial confidentiality is applied during court hearings, in order to protect the dignity of all the persons concerned.
Since the regulations in question are part of Canon Law and are therefore come under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church, they do not include provisions on reporting crimes to the civil authorities.
So the Vatican has made no changes to the Canon law regarding the delicate case of collaboration between canonical justice and civil justice in cases where a priest is accused of sexually abusing minors.
The updated current regulations on crimes of this kind do not require or forbid bishops or priests to report cases of sexual abuse against minors to civil authorities.
The current regulations form part of the Canonical criminal system, which is complete and distinct from those of other States.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has helped Episcopates across the world to coherently an efficiently formulate and develop guidelines and directives that are necessary for dealing with the problem of sexual abuse committed by priests against minors, taking into account the situation and problems of the societies in which they operate.