NPR: The Pope Is Toughening Church Laws On Sex Abuse, Fraud And The Ordination Of Women
ROME — Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a major revision of Catholic Church laws regulating clerical sex abuse, fraud and the attempt to ordain women. It is known as an apostolic constitution with the title, Pascite Gregem Dei, or “Tend the Flock.”
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Penalties are established for attempting to ordain women as priests
While the church has for centuries banned women from becoming priests, the previous code of 1983 said only that priestly ordination is reserved for a “baptized male.” Now, there is a code that stipulates specifically that both the person who attempts to confer ordination on a woman and the woman herself incur automatic excommunication and that the cleric risks being defrocked.
In response, Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, said in a statement that while not surprising, spelling it out as a new code is “a painful reminder of the Vatican’s patriarchal machinery, and its far-reaching attempts to subordinate women.”
Other new articles include several on economic crimes, such as embezzlement of church funds or property or grave negligence in their administration.
The new Code of Canon Law will go into effect on Dec. 8.