July 14th, 2010
01:04 PM ET

Catholic Church to release new rules to prevent abuse

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.

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Filed under: Church Abuse • Vatican
soundoff (7 Responses)
  1. chief

    "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

    July 14, 2010 at 1:43 pm | Report abuse |
    • kjcube

      They assumed them to be common sense... Apparently didn't work out so well

      October 18, 2010 at 1:24 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Ryan Enage

    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.

    July 14, 2010 at 2:38 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Pykup Andropov

    These rules mean nothing without strict enforcement.

    July 14, 2010 at 3:58 pm | Report abuse |
    • Ryan Enage

      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.

      July 23, 2010 at 12:53 pm | Report abuse |
  4. stacy

    Pretty sad when CNN's writers can't miss an obvious typo like misspelling CATHOLIC!

    July 15, 2010 at 3:41 am | Report abuse |
  5. Jesus of Nazareth

    Um, weren't the old rules, don't get caught and we will protect you? Why would they want to restate those?

    September 17, 2010 at 3:43 pm | Report abuse |
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