Pope Francis: Child Sex Abuse, Vatican Leaks Criminalized For First Time

Pope Francis says child sex abuse and Vatican leaks will be criminalized for the first time in the Vatican city.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Pope Francis is facing multiple Vatican scandals rocking the Catholic church.

Paolo Cipriani, Director of the Vatican Bank, and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, resigned from the Vatican on suspicions of money laundering. Claims of sexual abuse by priests has led to the Catholic church spending millions of dollars on litigation and assistance related to the child sexual abuse.

In response, Pope Francis is trying to reform Vatican city and issued new laws as a “moto proprio,” meaning the ideas were his own. Vatican city is technically its own little nation nestled inside Rome, Italy and its laws are apparently way behind the times, hearkening back to the Italian penal code from 1889. These laws are technically separate from the canon law, which covers the Catholic church worldwide.

Pope Francis introduced “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors” including child prostitution, sexual acts with children, child pornography, and sexual violence. The Vatican may choose to pursue a case even if the victim is silent. New laws will fight money laundering and terrorism and also increase criminal liability for people working in the Vatican. Other changes will bring the Vatican law up to date with signed international treaties.

But one change by Pope Francis to the Vatican city laws does stand out. Pope Francis criminalized the leaking of Vatican information to outsiders. Critics say this was probably in response to Pope Benedict’s butler leaking papal documents to journalists in order to expose the “evil and corruption” within the Vatican.

What do you think about Pope Francis’ changes to Vatican city law?