The Catholic Church Thursday will release its new rules to try to prevent clergy from abusing children, a source close to the Vatican told CNN.
They will be aimed more at firming up existing practices than announcing new rules, said the source, who asked not to be named because they were talking about the regulations before they are made public.
The Vatican will add the possession of child pornography to the list of most serious crimes, declare the abuse of any mentally retarded person to be as bad as the abuse of children, and double the statute of limitations on the Vatican's own prosecution of suspected abuse.
"declare the abuse of any mentally retarded person to be as bad as the abuse of children"
you gotta be kidding me, these are rules? HA
They assumed them to be common sense... Apparently didn't work out so well
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and all Catholics are called to uphold the zero-tolerance policy of pedophilia. Catholics and non-Catholics are free to submit abuse claims to the Church, where pastors will revoke the recognition and clerical status of priests if a claim is found to have concrete evidence. There will always be adults with abnormal tendencies and attractions. The truth will set us free.
These rules mean nothing without strict enforcement.
I fully agree. Catholics and non-Catholics should also make effort to ensure that their parish and diocese is in conformity with both canon and civil law.
Pretty sad when CNN's writers can't miss an obvious typo like misspelling CATHOLIC!
Um, weren't the old rules, don't get caught and we will protect you? Why would they want to restate those?