(By Paul Virgo).
The Vatican said
Tuesday that Pope Francis has created a new judicial body within
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to focus on the
most serious crimes, including child sex abuse, and streamline
Church procedures in such cases.
The new body dealing with appeals by clergymen accused of
the most serious crimes (delicta graviora) will be made up of
seven cardinals or bishops chosen by the pope.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said there is
currently a backlog of cases with the Congregation and the
pope's plan "was well received and is considered a good
solution" to the backlog.
Francis has shown he is serious about tackling the problem
of sex abuse of minors by members of the clergy since taking the
helm of the Catholic Church, whose image has been tarred by a
series of scandals in various parts of the world.
He has defrocked several senior priests and in September
he had a former archbishop, Pole Jozef Wesolowski, arrested in
the Vatican on charges of allegedly abusing children.
The arrest was the first inside the Vatican for alleged
paedophilia.
Sex-abuse cases, many of which emerged during the papacy
of Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, have cost Catholic
dioceses and religious orders around the world billions of
dollars in legal fees and settlements.
Francis has apologised for the abuse several times.
He also stiffened the punishments in the Holy See's law on
paedophilia and set up a special commission to advise him on how
the Catholic Church should protect children and help victims of
sexual abuse by the clergy
On Tuesday Pope Francis also urged leaders of the G20
nations meeting on the weekend in Brisbane to take measures to
protect people from financial abuse of the sort that led to the
global crisis that began in 2008.
He criticised "speculation lacking political or juridical
constraints and the mentality that maximization of profits is
the final criterion of all economic activity - a mindset in
which individuals are ultimately discarded will never achieve
peace or justice".
In a message to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott,
host of the summit, the pope also called on the G20 to press the
United Nations to stop "the unjust aggression in the Middle
East" that especially affects religious and ethnic minorities.
Francis visited the region earlier this year.
It was a busy day for the Argentine pontiff, who also
returned to the theme of the importance of work in a new tweet
on Tuesday.
"Work is so important for human dignity, for building up a
family, for peace!" wrote the pope in a message on his
nine-language @Pontifex Twitter account.
http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/
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