The secretary of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop Stephen Lowe of Hamilton, focused on tougher penalties for sexual abuse in welcoming revisions to the Church’s Code of Canon Law.
Pope Francis published an extensive revision of Book Six of the Code, which deals with penal sanctions for ecclesiastical crimes. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, had ordered the revision in 2007.
In an Apostolic Constitution explaining the need for the new Code, Pope Francis said that “it required modification in such a way as to allow Pastors to employ it as a more salvific and corrective tool, to be applied promptly and with pastoral charity to avoid more serious evils and soothe the wounds caused by human nature.”
