Daily Mail
Pope Francis updated the Catholic Church’s criminal code on Tuesday, making it a crime to groom children or vulnerable adults for sexual abuse.
Laws around sexual abuse were also extended to make possessing child pornography a crime in the most extensive revision since the current code was approved by Pope John Paul in 1983.
It comes after decades of sexual abuses scandals involving Catholic priests around the globe – a stain the Argentine pontiff has striven to tackle since becoming pope in 2013.
The purpose of the revision, wrote Francis in introducing the changes, is ‘restoration of justice, the reform of the offender, and the repair of scandal.’
The revision, which has been in the works since 2009, involves all of section six of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, a seven-book code of about 1,750 articles.
In the overhaul, sexual abuse of minors was put put under a new section titled ‘Offences Against Human Life, Dignity and Liberty,’ instead of the previously vague ‘Crimes Against Special Obligations’.
The new section, involving about 80 articles concerning crime and punishment, incorporates some changes made to Church law since 1983 by the popes and introduces new categories.
The changes come after repeated complaints that the code’s previous wording was outdated and intransparent.
The changes come after repeated complaints that the code’s previous wording was outdated and intransparent.
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