TP O'Mahony: Vatican breathlessly playing catch-up on sex abuse

A revision of the Code of Canon Law proposes changes to the language and handling of the crime of sex abuse. If the culture in the Vatican remains the same, however, then inevitably there will be further frustration

Under the new version of the code, which was promulgated on June 1 in an apostolic constitution from Pope Francis entitled Pascite Gregem Dei (Tend the Flock), there is now an entire chapter dedicated to the issue under the title of 'Offences against human life, dignity, and liberty'. Photo: Giuseppe Lami/AP

Twelve years after the devastating Murphy report, six years after the defrocking of cardinal Theodore McCarrick in Washington DC, and three years after 34 bishops in Chile offered to resign over cover-ups, the Vatican is still breathlessly playing catch-up on remedies for the clerical sex abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic Church worldwide.

The latest attempt — a long-awaited revision of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law dealing with sanctions and punishments — has proposed changes to the language and handling of the crime of sex abuse which had previously been included under the umbrella of sins committed “against the sixth commandment”.