Pope Francis has issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for the Vatican City State and Vatican diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of allegations to Vatican prosecutors, as he seeks to create a model policy for the Catholic Church.
The mandatory reporting provision, while limited in scope to Vatican officials, marks the first time the Holy See has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.
Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary, acting after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year and the Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.
While the new norms cover only Vatican City State, affiliated institutions and the Holy See's diplomatic corps, they were still symbolically significant and were welcomed by a former seminarian whose case helped spark the reform.
"I see this as something positive," Kamil Jarzembowski said.
