[9mm_fan]

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City State on Thursday, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison.

The legislation covers clergy and lay people who live and work in Vatican City and is different from the canon law which covers the universal Catholic Church.

The bulk of the Vatican’s penal code is based on the 1889 Italian code. Many of the new provisions were necessary to bring the city state’s legal system up to date after the Holy See signed international treaties, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Others were necessary to comply with international norms to fight money-laundering, part of the Vatican’s push toward financial transparency.

One new crime stands out, though, as an obvious response to the leaks of papal documents last year that represented one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.

Paolo Gabriele, the butler for then-Pope Benedict XVI, was tried and convicted by a Vatican court of stealing Benedict’s personal papers and giving them to an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Using the documents, Nuzzi published a blockbuster book on the petty turf wars, bureaucratic dysfunction and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons that afflict the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

Gabriele, who said he wanted to expose the “evil and corruption” that plagued the Holy See, was convicted of aggravated theft and sentenced to 18 months in the Vatican’s police barracks. Benedict eventually pardoned him and he is now a free man.

But his crime devastated the Vatican, shattering the confidentiality that typically governs correspondence with the pope.

In an indication of how serious the Vatican considers such confidentiality, the penalties for violations of the new law are stiff: Anyone who reveals or receives confidential information or documentation risks six months to two years in prison and a (euro)2,000 euro ($2,500) fine; the penalty goes up to eight years in prison if the material concerns the “fundamental interests” of the Holy See or its diplomatic relations with other countries.

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre, the president of the Vatican tribunal who presided over Gabriele’s trial, acknowledged Thursday that the Gabriele case could be seen as having an influence on the new crime, though he said the crime itself was “irrelevant” to the overall reform.

But the crime of leaking Vatican information never existed before in the Vatican legal system. Sexual crimes did exist, albeit in a general form in the archaic code as a crime against “good customs.”

The new law gives a broader definition of the crimes against children, including the sale of children, child prostitution, recruiting children, sexual violence, sexual acts with children and the production and possession of child pornography.

In the old code, such general crimes would have carried a maximum penalty of three to 10 years, the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said. Under the revision, the punishments go from five to 10 years, with aggravating circumstances bringing the maximum up to 12 years, he said.

It considers a minor anyone under age 18, and allows Vatican prosecutors to pursue the case on their own even if the victim or his or her guardians choose not to make a criminal complaint.

Dalla Torre stressed that just because such acts are illegal now doesn’t mean they were legal before. It merely means that, 100 years ago, child pornography was not specified as a crime in either the Italian legal code or the Vatican’s.

[Fegasderty]

Wait, that wasn't already illegal?

[softy54534]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't illegal due to the tiny size of the Vatican and the fact that no children live there.

[Slonopotam845]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't illegal due to other reasons.

[S.T.D.]

What other reasons? And please don't say "so priests could rape children".

[Beerinkol]

They covered up sex abuse scandals.

[Ifroham4]

Well first off it was a joke, but every level of Vatican leadership was complicit in covering up child sex abuse. Why would those same people go out of their way to target those they were protecting?

[tgs]

Pope Francis obviously wasn't complicit, he's making an effort to change and reform this corrupt system.

[NeroASERCH]

Misleading headline. From the article:

"In the old code, such general crimes would have carried a maximum penalty of three to 10 years...."
"Dalla Torre stressed that just because such acts are illegal now doesn’t mean they were legal before."

What they did was update the language of the laws to be more clearly in compliance with signed international treaties, "such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."

[brraverishhh]

Don't forget: they haven't changed church rules, which means priests are not subject to these laws, because the church can and will continue to protect them.
These only apply to non-clergy.
Well, ok, to be fair, priests who leak information are also covered by the new laws - so any priest who leaks proof that the church is protecting pedophiles is going to be punished.

[9mm_fan]

They haven't changed canon law because it was always sufficient, if only it was applied:

The Murphy Report makes it clear that canon law was not the problem that many have assumed it was. In fact, the problem of child abuse by clerics was made worse by the reckless actions of Church officials who simply refused to implement canon law. The opening pages of the Murphy Commission report explicitly state that Church law refers to the abuse of a minor as the “worst crime.”
As the commission wrote: “There is a 2,000-year history of biblical, papal, and Holy See statements showing awareness of clerical child sexual abuse…. These denunciations are particularly strong on ‘offences against nature’ and ‘offences committed with or against juveniles.’”
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, for example, “decreed deprivation of office and/or benefice, or expulsion from the clerical state for such offences,” the report notes.

Note that the Murphy Report was not published by the Church, but by the Irish government.

[Fegasderty]

That's nice.
The specific announcement being discussed here does nothing to solve that particular problem.
I know I'm offending the catholic pedophile defense league here, but the fact is that they have changed the church rules from "child abuse is illegal" to "child abuse is still illegal" and forgot do do anything about the fact that they selectively enforced the rules to start with.
I know, I know, reddit catholics are thrilled to be able to say that the pope knows that raping children is wrong, but the church has, as you say, known that for centuries.
The problem is their actions do not reflect their words, and writing new words is not fixing that.

[softy54534]

Change, even if it occurs at a glacial pace, is better than none.

[Slonopotam845]

It seems this pope has put a turbo pack on the Churches change.

[S.T.D.]

Why are people still criticizing them even after they've taken action against this? It's good to see that the catholic church is actually willing to punish those who are doing this sort of thing. This is a good step from the pope in winning back support anyways.

[Beerinkol]

This doesn't mean much if they don't actively find people that are committing these horrible crimes and punish them. For example; there are laws set up and punishment for People who break them, but I don't see any bankers going to jail.

[Ifroham4]

Something tells me this new pope is all for show to increase their PR when they're not stopping all their disgusting and illegal activities.

[tgs]

Pope Francis speaks a lot of wisdom. Intelligent man

[blauritter]

Pope Francis has become the world's first international Shabbos Goy to ever pontificate from the Holy See .

[stellaethan]

Ive picked the range of law i need to do my thesis for Buy online coursework UK about which is Child sexual misuse. Be that as it may i have to make this applicable and have a lawful talk point. I'm discovering hard to thing of a speculation for my paper. I considered lady sex wrongdoers and discussing " a definitive selling out' yet i would acknowledge different perspectives on various titles i could possibly utilize.