Sexual Abuse of Minors in Currently Applicable Canon Law – Selected Issues
Sexual Abuse of Minors in Currently Applicable Canon Law – Selected Issues

Summary/Abstract: Acts contra sextum with minors are one of the most serious ecclesiastical crimes. For this reason, they have always been a subject matter of ecclesiastical law and have been punished in various ways. The article discusses selected aspects of sexual abuse concerning minors in the current canon law, especially in the light of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law of 1983 reformed by Pope Francis. It presents what sexual abuse is in terms of canon law and discusses the active subject (the offender) and the passive subject (the victim) of a criminal act as well as the issue of child pornography. The article outlines the characteristics of the canonical and criminal liability of the clergy. The analysis of the literature clearly indicates that the penalty imposed on a clergyman in the canonical system neither relieves nor replaces the penalty imposed in the penitential system of state law, hence the clergyman is somehow subject to double responsibility. First under canon law and then under state law.

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