Obliged Report Abuse Church

Pope Francis passed a measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors,

following a global clerical paedophilia scandal.
Every diocese in the world will now be obliged to have a system for the reporting of abuse, under a new law published by the Vatican –

but the requirement will not apply to secrets revealed to priests in the confessional.
It is time to learn from the "bitter lessons of the past",


It follows a series of clerical assault cases in countries ranging from Australia to Chile, Germany and the US.
a legal document declares that

anyone who has knowledge of abuse, or suspects it, is "obliged to report (it) promptly" to the Church, using "easily accessible systems".

The law only applies within the Church and
has no force to oblige individuals to report abuse to civil authorities.


every diocese around the world is obliged by June 2020
to create a system for the reporting of sexual abuse by clerics,
the use of child pornography and cover-ups of abuse.

Confessions still secret 
The document focuses particularly on the sexual or psychological abuse of children and vulnerable adults,

but also targets sexual abuse and violence
resulting from an abuse of authority –

such as the exploitation of nuns by priests.
Pope admitting publicly in February that
priests have used nuns as "sexual slaves" -- and may still be doing so.
Victims' groups have long called for Francis to put in place concrete measures
to tackle clerical child abuse,
including immediately firing any cleric found guilty of even a single act of abuse, or of covering it up.

Some have called for priests who hear of abuse during confessions to be forced to report it. The new law stops short of that.
Catholics believe that
within the confessional the penitent is talking to God,
and everything in the confession is secret.

 A priest who reveals such secrets is automatically expelled from the Church.
The new law follows a historic Vatican summit on child sexual abuse by priests in February, which saw much self-recrimination by the Church

and horror stories from abuse survivors.