ROME – While many have taken the strange case of Argentine ex-priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi as a classic example of a turf war between competing Vatican departments, a close analysis suggests the twists and turns may be less about bureaucratic tussles and more about the notoriously ill-defined boundary between misconduct and outright abuse.
As part of that picture, the Príncipi case also illustrates how one of main tests in ecclesiastical jurisprudence for establishing abuse, which is whether a particular act was carried out “for libidinous ends,” can be exceedingly difficult to prove.
