“Let us think about how some Christian communities or dioceses first begin with stories, and then they end by discrediting the priest or the bishop. It is precisely the way of the evil one, of these people who divide, who do not know how to build." Pope Francis said.
Jesus Guerrero, who was ordained as a deacon in 1997, sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lubbock after they refused to remove his name from a list released in 2018 of clergy who they deemed as having credible accusations of sexual abuse lodged against them. In an 8-1 decision released Friday, the state’s highest court concluded that the Diocese of Lubbock could lawfully include Guerrero's name on the list of accused clergy.
A forensic psychiatrist testified Tuesday in defense of Father that persons who suffer from the mental illnesses his accuser does are prone to memory problems and making up things that aren’t true while convincing themselves that they are.
Amid the scandals of seminarians and nuns being sexually abused by their superiors, the Vatican has come to realize that adults can be victimized too if there is a power imbalance in the relationship. The law doesn't explicitly define which adults are covered, saying only an adult who "habitually has an imperfect use of reason" or for “whom the law recognizes equal protection.”
The new version of Book Six clarifies more carefully what the crimes are, what the parameters are for bishops who have to determine and dole out punishments, and how to better protect the Church as a community, meaning any public scandal associated with a crime will also play a factor in what punishment a guilty party receives.