Madrid (EFE) .
This instruction, approved at the last Plenary Assembly of the EEC, serves as a “guide” for dioceses and religious congregations on how to act when reporting a case of sexual abuse, and the document will be updated each time the current canonical regulations change.
In the preamble to the instruction, the Church asks for forgiveness and is committed “to the search for truth and the realization of justice”, both in the canonical sphere and in the civil sphere, for which the bishops reaffirm the principle of collaboration with secular justice.
Thus, they undertake to “respect and even encourage the victims to exercise the right to act according to their conscience in regard to the complaint before the state authorities, without excluding the possibility that the diocese or the institute may, in his case, appear in the corresponding criminal proceedings.”
“Extremely painful and unacceptable” situations
He points out that among the “most reprehensible” attitudes in the ministry and life of a priest, there is “authoritarianism, abuse of power and, in a very special way, sexual abuse against minors, against those who habitually have an imperfect use of reason and against those to whom the law recognizes equal protection”.
And he affirms that these situations are “extremely painful and unacceptable”, cause physical, psychological and spiritual damage to the victims, and harm the community of faithful.
For this reason, “learning from the bitter lessons of the past and looking to the future with hope”, the Church assumes the commitment to adopt the procedural mechanisms that allow “to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful”.
This instruction guarantees a unitary way of proceeding throughout the territory of the EEC, and for this reason it explains and develops the legal-procedural mechanisms of Church law that are “obligatory and binding” for all diocesan bishops and for the major superiors of the institutes of consecrated life and clerical societies of apostolic life.
The provisions of this Instruction – it indicates – are also applicable, to the extent that it is appropriate, to non-cleric members of institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life, or to any faithful who enjoy “some dignity or perform a office or function in the Church”.