In an effort to restore to the Church greater confidence in the integrity of ecclesiastical justice, in mid-December 2019, Pope Francis published the „Instruction on the Confidentiality of Legal Proceedings“, which removes the pontifical secret from certain phases of criminal proceedings against clerics accused of crimes of abuse of a minor, thus allowing this information to be made known to the broader public. The Instruction is short and worthy of great attention because it focuses on the essential, on the Christian view and attitude towards victims of sexual abuse. Pope Francis has lifted the pontifical secret when it comes to the denunciation of clerical offences, on the proceedings themselves and the final decisions in the form of a judgment or an out-of-court decision. In doing so, Pope Francis has added to and reformed some of the documents of his predecessors, allowing this deep wound of sexual abuse of minors to be spoken about publicly and restoring confidence in the greater integrity of the Church’s judiciary. Although studies on the incidence of sexual abuse reveal that the main scene of violence is the home environment, the painful truth is that many priests have also betrayed the grace of Ordination in succumbing even to the most grievous forms of the mysterium iniquitatis at work in the world. This is why the Instruction is a revolutionary innovation and means that Ecclesia semper reformanda takes place in honesty and transparency.
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