One of the most interesting, and largely overlooked or at least under-noticed, points of Pope Francis’s new Apostolic Letter motu proprio, Vos estis lux mundi, is a negative provision — a “shall not” — regarding reporters of abuse or coverup, or of suspicions regarding abuse or coverup. Article 4§3 states: “An obligation to keep silent may not be imposed on any person with regard to the contents of his or her report.”
This frees reporters of abuse to go to reporters in the press.
One thing missing from the law is provision for enforcement: Vos estis does not contain any real provision for punishing non-compliance. In his regular weekend analysis column this past Sunday, Crux editor John Allen described the state of affairs as one in which Pope Francis is counting on the faithful themselves to hold their bishops’ feet to the fire. “Francis does appear to have thrown down a gauntlet in Vos Estis,” Allen wrote, “and perhaps, at least in part, is counting on public pressure to succeed where previous ecclesiastical mandates haven’t.”
