(ZENIT News / Ciudad del Vaticano, 30.01.2024).- The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a clarification related to the term “vulnerable adults” — concept used in contexts of abuses in the Church –, stressing that the definition encompasses broader cases than those within the competence of that Dicastery, but evidencing that for trial purposes it is only concerned with those related to minors younger than 18, and those that habitually have an imperfect use of reason.
Here is the translation into English of the Clarification, published originally in Italian on the Dicastery’s Website.
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CLARIFICATION REGARDING VULNERABLE ADULTS
With the modifications of the substantive rules relating to the Motu Proprio “Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela” (SST), the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) acquired — starting May 21, 2010 — the competence to know the crimes against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue, committed by clergymen with persons that habitually have an imperfect use of treason. This competence was confirmed without changes in the second revision of SST of 2021 (cf. art. 6, 1st SST).
Meanwhile, as a result of the promulgation of the Motu Proprio “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (VELM), which came into force on June 1, 2019, introduced in the canonical order was the concept of vulnerable adult, which includes “every person in a state of illness, physical and psychic deficiency, or privation of personal liberty that limits, in fact, — including occasionally –, his/her capacity to understand or of wanting or, in any case, of resisting the crime” (art. 1 § 2, b VELM).
In this regard, it is worth remembering that the definition of vulnerable adult encompasses broader cases than those within the competence of the DDF, which continues limited — in addition to minors younger then 18 –, to those that habitually have an imperfect use of reason. Therefore, the other cases outside of these assumptions are addressed by the competent Departments just as is written in art. 7 § 1 VELM.
