tvc.dsj.org | May 21, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
13
Pope Issues New Norms on Mandatory Abuse Reporting, Bishop Accountability
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis
has revised and clarified norms and
procedures for holding bishops and
religious superiors accountable in
protecting minors as well as in pro-
tecting members of religious orders
and seminarians from abuse.
The new juridical instrument is
meant to help bishops and religious
leaders around the world clearly un-
derstand their duties and church law,
underlining how they are ultimately
responsible for proper governance
and protecting those entrusted to
their care. For this reason, the new
document establishes a clearer set of
universal procedures for reporting
suspected abuse, carrying out initial
investigations and protecting victims
and whistleblowers.
The new document, given “motu
proprio,” on the pope’s own initiative,
was titled “Vos estis lux mundi” (“You
are the light of the world”), based on a
verse from the Gospel of St. Matthew
(5:14).
“The crimes of sexual abuse offend
Our Lord, cause physical, psychologi-
cal and spiritual damage to the victims
and harm the community of the faith-
ful,” the pope said in the document,
released by the Vatican May 9. The
norms go into effect June 1.
In order to stop all forms of abuse
from ever happening again, not only
is “a continuous and profound conver-
sion of hearts” necessary, there must
be “concrete and effective actions that
involve everyone in the church,” he
wrote.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of
the Congregation for Bishops, said the
new norms ascribe a new role to heads
of dioceses by making them respon-
sible for alerting the proper Vatican
authorities of all forms of suspected
abuse, including the possession, dis-
tribution or creation of pornography
involving a minor.
He told Vatican News May 9 that
the norms respond to Pope Francis’
continued insistence for concrete and
effective measures to ensure bishops
and religious superiors have a very
clear understanding of what their
obligations are and what they should
and should not do when it comes to
safeguarding.
It also requires all priests and re-
ligious to report suspected abuse or
cover-ups and encourages any lay per-
son to report through a now-mandated
reporting “system” or office in each
diocese.
How the office or “system” works
will be up to each diocese, but “the
idea is that anyone who has suffered
abuse can have recourse to the local
Bishop Baldacchino named to head
Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope
Francis has named Auxiliary Bishop
Peter Baldacchino of Miami as the new
bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The appointment was announced
May 15 in Washington by Archbishop
Christophe Pierre, the Vatican nuncio
to the United States.
Bishop Baldacchino, 58, is a native of
Malta. He was named auxiliary bishop
of Miami in 2014 and was ordained a
priest in the Archdiocese of Newark in
1996. He succeeds Bishop Oscar Cantú,
who was named coadjutor bishop of
San Jose, California, last July and has
now assumed pastoral governance
of that diocese with the retirement
of Bishop Patrick J. McGrath. Bishop
Baldacchino will be installed in Las
Cruces July 23.
Up to now, retired Bishop Gerald F.
Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, had been
the apostolic administrator of the Las
Cruces Diocese.
Peter Baldacchino was born Dec. 5,
church, while being assured they will
be well received, protected from re-
taliation, and that their reports will be
treated with the utmost seriousness,”
Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of
the Dicastery for Communication, told
Vatican News.
The document is a follow-up to
Pope Francis’ 2016 document, “As a
Loving Mother,” on transparency and
accountability of bishops and religious
superiors.
The two documents together are
meant to correct what had been a
lack of or unclear procedures for
investigating the way a bishop com-
plies with already established norms
against abuse and clearly expressing
the consequences of noncompliance
or cover-ups.
Bishop Cantú Welcomes New Motu Proprio
I am grateful to the Holy Father,
Pope Francis, for the clarity and direc-
tion he has given in his Motu Proprio
(which can mean a change to Church
law under the Pope’s authority) Vos
estis lux mundi, “You are the light of
the world.” It provides a pathway for
greater and needed transparency, ac-
countability, and justice within the
Catholic Church in responding to al-
legations of sexual abuse of minors and
vulnerable persons.
As Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, presi-
dent of the USCCB, has said, “It calls for
the establishment of easily accessible
reporting systems, clear standards for
the pastoral support of victims and
their families, timeliness, and thor-
oughness of investigations, whistle-
blower protection for those making
allegations, and active involvement of
the laity.” Under the new Church law,
bishops will also be held accountable
for sexual abuse of minors or vulner-
able persons, sexual acts compelled
through the abuse of authority, and any
coverup of such crimes.
I am pleased that it is already the
standard practice of the Diocese of San
Jose to report all allegations of sexual
misconduct with minors and vulner-
able adults to the civil authorities, in
accordance with mandated reporter
laws. All reports are kept confidential
to ensure the victim/survivor’s right
to privacy.
I look forward to the June meeting of
the USCCB, where the US bishops will
discuss the implementation of these
new Church laws.
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1960, in Sliema, Malta, and holds citi-
zenship in both the United States and
Malta. He studied for the priesthood at
Redemptoris Mater Seminary in New-
ark from 1990 to 1996.
After his priestly ordination for the
Newark Archdiocese, he was parochial
vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Par-
ish in Ridgewood, New Jersey, for three
years. Then in 1999 he was named chan-
cellor of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Until his appointment as an auxilia-
ry for Miami, Bishop Baldacchino also
was pastor of Our Lady of Providence
Church on Providenciales Island. He
was named a monsignor in 2009.
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