Vatican to consider classifying ‘spiritual abuse’ as new Catholic crime

A assertion from the Vatican’s doctrinal set of job asserting the transfer did not name any particular conditions of such abuse, but the Vatican has had to take care of several in latest years

Reuters

26 November, 2024, 09:35 pm

Final modified: 26 November, 2024, 09:40 pm

Pope Francis has requested the Vatican to ascertain whether or no longer the Catholic Church might per chance perhaps additionally nonetheless classify “religious abuse” as a brand nonetheless crime with a belief to take care of conditions where monks employ purported mystical experiences as a pretext for harming others.

A assertion from the Vatican’s doctrinal set of job asserting the transfer did not name any particular conditions of such abuse, but the Vatican has had to take care of several in latest years.

Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the Church’s lead doctrinal legit, met with Francis to discuss about the proposal for a brand nonetheless crime of religious abuse on 22 November, based mostly entirely on the assertion. The pope directed Fernandez to work with one other Vatican set of job to take into yarn the priority, it talked about.

The launch quoted from nonetheless Vatican norms, well-liked in Could well perhaps even, on evaluating alleged supernatural events, asserting it was “morally grave” to make employ of purported religious experiences to exert abet a watch on over others.

One high-profile case interesting accusations of abuse considerations Rev. Marko Rupnik, an internationally known Catholic artist and worn chief of a non secular neighborhood in Rome. He has been accused by about 25 folks, largely worn nuns, of numerous forms of abuse.

One worn nun talked about in February that Rupnik forced her into having sex with him and one other nun, justifying it as devotion to the Holy Trinity.

Rupnik is never any longer known to maintain commented publicly on the accusations. Nonetheless, the centre he led in Rome launched a letter in July asserting that Rupnik “had always firmly denied” the accusations.

The Catholic Jesuit bid expelled Rupnik from their ranks in June 2023, and the Vatican reopened an investigation into his habits in October final year.

Rupnik was final known to be ministering in his native Slovenia.