VATICAN CITY (CNS) As he did before naming a new prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, Pope Francis has asked a bishop to conduct an official visit of the Congregation for Clergy.
In a letter June 7, Bishop Egidio Miragoli of Mondovì, Italy, told the priests of his diocese that Pope Francis had asked him to undertake a visit, in his name, of the Congregation for Clergy.
The current prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, will reach the mandato
VATICAN CITY (CNS) A cleric who sexually abuses a child and a bishop or religious superior who covers up that abuse are personally morally at fault, but the Catholic Church as an institution is not, said Cardinal Julián Herranz, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
In a letter published on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, the 91-year-old cardinal said that the errors, sins and sometimes even crimes of her members, including senior members of the hierarc
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, 67, has submitted his resignation to Pope Francis, saying that bishops must accept responsibility for the personal and institutional failures of the church in handling the clerical sexual abuse crisis.
Pope Francis has extensively updated a section of church law that addresses sexual abuse explicitly, including child pornography. The required actions of a bishop or superior of a religious order in handling allegations are more stringent.