Whether the same reservation applies to instances involving other categories of “vulnerable persons,” including seminarians, priests in relation to their superiors, Church employees, and lay people under the spiritual care of a cleric, has been an open question among canonists since the promulgation of Vos estis in 2019, which created the new legal category of “vulnerable persons.”
Among the events cited for starting the new review earlier were changes in the Code of Canon Law regarding penal sanctions in the church that take effect in December; Pope Francis’ May 2019 motu proprio, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” revising and clarifying norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable for protecting abusers; and the Vatican report on the investigation into allegations of abuse by Theodore McCarrick, former cardinal and archbishop of Washington.
the Catholic Church should issue a new instruction for priests who hear confessions, it would “reiterate obligations to respect the laws for reporting abuse outside of the confessional and it would also reaffirm the seal. It would emphasize the personal responsibility of the confessor,” including “the requirement to call on a perpetrator to stop the abuse, to report themselves to the statutory authorities, and to seek therapeutic help.”
Should it be mandatory for a priest who hears about sexual abuse committed against a minor in confession to report it to the secular authorities?” He wrote, there is no “compelling evidence showing that abuse would be prevented by removing the seal” of the confessional.
I cannot speak for any other priest, but any time I introduce myself as a priest I personally expect to be distrusted. I think that response is completely understandable given the enormity of the sexual abuse crisis, but it is very wearying. Each time a new set of revelations comes out ... What is this institution that we have given our lives to, priests may ask themselves?