The move is part of a groundbreaking new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks.
The church law provides whistle-blower protections for anyone making a report and requires all dioceses around the world to have a system in place to receive the claims confidentially.
It outlines procedures for conducting preliminary investigations when the accused is a bishop, cardinal or religious superior.
It is the latest effort by Francis to respond to the global eruption of the sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has devastated the credibility of the Catholic hierarchy and his own papacy.
“We have said for years that priests must conform to certain strict rules, so why shouldn’t bishops and others in the hierarchy do the same?” said Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican office for bishops. “It’s not just a law, but a profound responsibility.”
The law makes the world’s 415,000 Catholic priests and 660,000 religious sisters mandated reporters.
That means they are required to inform church authorities when they learn or have “well-founded motives to believe” that a cleric or sister has engaged in sexual abuse of a minor, sexual misconduct with an adult, possession of child pornography – or that a superior has covered up any of those crimes.
Malta’s Archbishop Charles Scicluna…
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