Pope Francis Pontefrew was distinguished by actions to face sexual assaults within the Catholic Church, while implementing changes and reviewing behavior between religious.
In 2021, the Vatican carried out the four decades’ largest renewal in the law of the ecclesiastical law, and changed the rules related to the crimes committed by priests, priests and other clerics against minors and weak adults.
New legislation, It is more powerful, Frankly included the crime of children, which was previously included in the category of more than Ampl. Other crimes, such as possession of children’s pornography, and the corruption of the palace in legislation, have also been included.
Filippo Ion, who was appointed by Pope Francis and head of the Vatican Ministry of Vatican, said that there is an excessive negligent explanation for criminal law, which made it difficult for the responsibility of the violators.
“It is a very necessary and long -expected reform,” Eanon said at the time.
After completing the renewal, Pope Francis stressed that the bishops should apply new standards with rigor, noting that the goal is to reduce the margin of interpretation in imposing sanctions.
Francisco’s intervention occurred a day after a report indicated that his predecessor, Bento VI, did not behave at at least four cases of ill -treatment in Munich, Germany, when Pope Fakhir was still the head of bishops. Recognized in a recognized A letter written at the age of 94, in February 2022.
GPS in front of scandals
During Pontificate, Pope Francis also dealt with the topic in public statements. On the World Youth Day for the year 2023, in Portugal, for example, Argentina mentioned that The Church needed to undergo an ongoing process of internal review Victims of ill -treatment should be heard.
“The crisis invites us to a modest and continuous purification, starting with the troubled shouting of the victims, which should always be welcomed and heard,” Francisco said during this event.
A statement was made by a few months after another report issued by the Church -funded Portuguese committee that at least 4,815, the victims of violations committed by members of the clergy in Portugal for seven decades.
A The Catholic Portuguese Church said it would compensate Financially, the victims of sexual assault will be defined and that the amounts paid on the basis of each case separately. The situation was criticized by the relatives of the victims.
In France, similar cases were also identified. In 2021, a report estimated that more than 200,000 children were victims of ill -treatment committed by the clergy since 1950, a number that could reach 330,000 when considering the aggressors associated with the church.
On this report. Francisco stated that the document caused “Sadness and remorse for the shock that the victims suffered.” And the institutional failure recognized in approaching the problem.
Pope Francis and John Paul II error
Another case was reported intensively during Pontif Francis, which is the Vatican response to historical cases of omission within the hierarchical sequence of the church.
In 2020, an internal investigation revealed that Pope John Paul II had promoted the American Theodore McCarric The head of Washington’s bishops, the capital, even familiar with the allegations of sexual assault against him.
At that time, the document indicated that John Paul II made the decision based on the denial of McCarrick and a report from the American bishops who concluded that the information was “inaccurate and incomplete.”
The investigation also indicated that Pope Benedict XVI, the successor of John Paul II, asked the resignation of Makarik in 2005 after new accusations arose. However, McCarrick remained active in public life until 2018, when he resigned from the disaster college.
In 2019, McCarrick was officially rejected by the Vatican after being convicted of sexual assault on the minors in Canon’s rule.
The investigation also showed that, upon his papal assumption, Francis had initially understood that the accusations against McCarrick were reviewed and rejected by John Paul II.
However, when the first accusation of the 2018 minor assault came against Theodore McCarrick, Francis’s response was “instantly”, according to the report, and the former priesthood contestant refused. McCarrick died in April 2025.
Cardinal prison in Australia
Another case that included children who took newspapers during Francisco Pap for Australia. The Australian Cardinal George Bell, who was the Vatican treasurer, was arrested in 2019 and left only prison in the following year.
George Bell became No. 3 in the hierarchical sequence of the church, but his profession was shaken by five accusations: a state of sexual assault against a child and four others about committing “inappropriate acts”.
Cardinal was convicted of a trial based on the testimony of a man who said he was abused by him in the 1990s, when he was 13 years old.
According to the report, Bill besieged the teenager after a mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in Melbourne and forced him to perform sexual acts. Religious has always denied any crime.
Amid the scandal, Bell received the Vatican license for accusation. With conviction, his mandate was not renewed as the Vatican Secretary. In 2018, he lost his place in the short advice of the Pope, although the Apostolic Chair attributed this to his advanced year.
Cardinal was imprisoned more than a year later, but it was released by a Australia Supreme Court Resolution in 2020. The understanding was that the jury that condemned it did not act for the Bell contract “cannot benefit from doubt.”
However, the court did not announce that it was innocent of crimes. George Bell died in 2023, In 81, after suffering a heart attack after surgery to replace the hip in Rome.
