Prefect of the Faith Víctor Manuel Fernández explained the legislative plans for the first time on Thursday in an interview with the Spanish church newspaper "Alfa y Omega".
In November, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith set up a working group under the direction of the Prefect of the Dicastery for the legislative textsto draft a canonical offence for spiritual abuse and "false mysticism".
According to Fernández, this concerns cases of manipulation of people "who entrust themselves to a spiritual leader and, at the same time, manipulation of the spiritual beauty of our faith in order to obtain sex".
The planned change to church law is necessary because there is currently no relevant criminal offence for such cases. For this reason, the general penal provision of c. 1399 CIC has often been applied to date, which also permits penalties for offences that are not expressly defined if the particular gravity of the violation of the law makes punishment appear necessary.
The general penal norm has been criticised in canon law for decades because it breaches the principle of "no punishment without law".
The prefect described it as "not favourable" to be able to rely solely on such a general provision for frequently occurring crimes.
Focus away from "false mysticism"
The working group set up in November is currently working on systematising existing precedents.
"Collecting cases or stories can help to better specify the conditions and scope of a typification or - with an authentic interpretation of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts - make it clear which existing norms cover these situations," said Fernández.
The Church's criminal law already covers
the abuse of a cleric's authority to commit sexual offences.
However, the original intention to introduce a criminal offence of "false mysticism" seems to have been abandoned.
The prefect emphasised that this formulation should be included in the new Vatican regulations on the examination of miracles in order to systematise the assessment of behaviour that is already punishable as serious.
In the case of spiritual abuse, however, it is appropriate to use a different term, as the two concepts are not congruent.
In the case of spiritual abuse, it is not necessary for false beliefs to play a role: "Even the Catechism of the Church or the writings of St John of the Cross can be used as a pretext to manipulate another person and commit a crime of 'spiritual abuse'."
Investigation into the Rupnik case concluded
In recent years, prominent cases and allegations of abuse have repeatedly been made public in which sexualised violence was spiritually justified by the accused.
Examples of this are the allegations against the ex-Jesuit Marko Rupnik where sexualised violence and abuse of power are said to be part of his creative process in the production of works of art, or the case of the founder of the case of the founder of the spiritual community "Family of Mary".
Former members of the community had accused him of inadmissibly mixing pastoral care and leadership of the organisation he founded.
In the interview, Fernández also commented on the Rupnik case. Although this is a prominent case, there are currently other open cases that are even more serious.
According to the prefect, the Dicastery of the Faith has compiled and analysed the necessary information for a trial against Rupnik. The task now is to put together an independent court to conduct the proceedings. Suitable persons are currently being sought for this.
In 2023, the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) published a working aid on dealing with clerical abuse published.
It states that the prosecution of clerical abuse under church law is only possible to a very limited extent: "This is because clerical abuse as a complex system is not qualified as a criminal offence either in church criminal law (reformed version of 2021) or in the state criminal code."
The working aid lists the abuse of knowledge acquired in confession, abuse of office and breaches of official duty, violation of the confidentiality of confession, violation of good reputation and the coercion of sexual acts as regulations in ecclesiastical criminal law that partially cover clerical abuse.