Catholic bishops not obligated to report clerical sex abuse, Vatican says

The Catholic Church is telling newly appointed bishops it is “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of clerical child abuse to authorities.

“[The reported training content is] not in any way – as someone has mistakenly interpreted – a new Vatican document or a new instruction or new “guidelines” for bishops”, Holy See spokesman Father Federico Lombardi tells CNA.

Instead, the church said the duty to report lies with the families of abuse victims.

Given the new powers of the Vatican’s doctrinal office to investigate and penalize bishops for failing to protect minors, the monsignor added that bishops have to be able to prove they acted upon learning of alleged abuse, investigated allegations and sanctioned those found guilty according to church laws.

The papers were presented at what was described as an annual “Vatican crash course” for about 185 newly named bishops around the world.

A document that spells out how senior clergy members ought to deal with allegations of abuse, which was recently released by the Vatican, emphasised that, though they must be aware of local laws, bishops’ only duty was to address such allegations internally.

Last summer, the Latin Times reported on the case of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was airlifted out of the Dominican Republic in 2014 just in time to avoid an investigation that had secured the cooperation of 7 alleged victims of his suspected sexual predations.

He said he was more surprised that not one member of a new body set up by Pope Francis to identify “best practices” in the fight against child abuse was involved in the training.

The training guidelines were written by a controversial French monsignor and psychotherapist, Tony Anatrella, who serves as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family.

“And the failure to invite representatives from that commission to make a presentation like this – to me that’s the real question”.

In Australia, abuse victims and the Church are calling for a uniform federal law that requires bishops and others to report any allegations of abuse to the police.

Despite pressures from advocacy groups and even the United Nations, the Church has been reluctant to make globally applicable canon laws about mandatory reporting, wrote former seminary student and judge Kieran Tripsell in an October column for the National Catholic Reporter. The bishops’ guidelines would allow victims and their families to decide whether to report abuse to police.

Dublin-based Marie Collins said that she would be horrified if that is what was being taught to bishops.

The Vatican declined to comment.