The scheme, announced by the Bishop’s Conference of France on Wednesday, will allow easier identification of priests able to lead mass and hear confessions. Cards will feature a QR code, scannable by mobile phone, that will flag a red, orange or green light depending on whether its holder had been stripped of clerical status. But it also aims at protecting worshippers from sexual abuse. The system is designed to support existing paper documents used by the Catholic church in France as it tries to clamp down on sex abuse in its ranks.

Francis explained that a sexual predator was to be condemned, “but as a brother” still deserving of love and care. “Even talking to the abuser involves revulsion; it’s not easy. But they are God’s children too. They deserve punishment, but they also deserve pastoral care. How do we provide that? No, it is not easy. The Gospel asks us to love, but how do we love at the same time people who have experienced abuse and their abusers?”

From the ordinary life of a diocese in its parishes and seminary, to the training of catechists, teachers and other pastoral workers, the importance of safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons must be the rule for everyone. In this regard, in religious and apostolic life, even cloistered novices must adhere to the same ministerial standards as their elderly brothers and sisters who spent a lifetime teaching the young. The principles of respect for the dignity of all, for right conduct and a sound way of life must become a universal rule, independent of people’s culture or economic and social condition.

The bill, which would have added clergy to the state’s list of mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect, ran into a sticking point. Catholic lobbyists — and a majority of state senators — wanted to carve out an exemption for priests if they learned of abuse or neglect through a confession, which is viewed as sacred within the Catholic Church.

Many accused priests never get a trial, “period end of story.” Nevertheless, their lives are thrown into turmoil, beyond any doubt. With no forum to clear their names, and in spite of repeated and consistent denials of the charge — and the lack of any criminal proceedings or any record from a related civil trial — isn’t it at least possible that some clerics simply despair of ever clearing their names and just decide to move on with their lives as best they can? Catholics should be very wary of making judgments about their fellow human beings.