Experts call for Vatican judicial reforms to promote transparency and a fair trial

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnVATICAN CITY (RNS) — Two decades after the Vatican was first forced to reckon with the clerical sexual abuse crisis, church experts on Thursday (April 11) addressed the institution’s failures to safeguard victims, promote transparency and guarantee a safe trial.For years, sexual abuse victims lamented that church trials under canon law fail to inform them about not just the proceedings but also the sentence. Despite Pope Francis’ efforts to reform church law and inject transparency into the institution, church officials and experts agreed much more still needs to be done.
“The church is called to speak the truth and to be true. It can’t play hide and seek with itself,” said the Rev. Jordi Pujol, a theologian teaching communications at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome. The excessive prudence in addressing sexual abuse cases, he added, has led to many mistakes and made it so that “too often church leaders treat the faithful like perpetual minors.”
Vatican experts, canon lawyers and theologians addressed the push for transparency in the church, weighing the need to protect victims with the right to a just defense, during a conference titled “Penal Justice in the Church: Safeguarding the Victim and the Safety of the Accused” o …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]