VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Francis on Thursday bolstered criminal legislation against child abuse in the Vatican in an overhaul of laws that apply to the clergy and lay people who work in the tiny city state.It looks good.
The Vatican said in a statement that the pope's decree included "a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors" including child prostitution, sexual acts with children and child pornography.
It looks caring.
It looks just.
But by implication it still asserts that the Vatican will adjudicate sexual abuse cases that, in the countries where the Roman Catholic Church has a presence, might be treated directly as civil crimes and punished as such.
Sexual abuse of children is a crime within the statutes of most civilized countries. Those countries have judicial systems and laws and prisons with which to gauge guilt, innocence and penalties. Those countries did not develop a judicial system in order to hand over their authority to some other state, holy or otherwise. The citizens of those countries, Catholic or otherwise, deserve no less.
It looks good.
It looks caring.
It looks just.
And it is a self-serving sham.
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