Pope issues new rules mandating the reporting of sexual abuse to Church authorities

The new rules require all Catholic dioceses around the world to have a "public and accessible" system in place for reporting abuse by June 1, 2020.

The new norms cover internal Catholic Church procedure, not the issue of reporting abuse or cover-up to civil authorities, and represent a top-down imposition which must be followed by all dioceses.

Most dioceses in the US and Europe already have these systems, and the new norms will likely be more important in countries where there are not already well-established guidelines for reporting and handling sexual abuse.

For decades the Catholic Church has been plagued by a series of sex abuse scandals in different countries around the world.

The new norms follow a global meeting on sex abuse at the Vatican in February and represent Pope Francis' pledge to offer "concrete measures" to combat sexual abuse.

There has not previously been a uniform, universal system in the Catholic Church for reporting and investigating allegations of abuse.

Although the norms represent an important clarification of procedures to be followed, they do not deal with the question of what happens to a priest or bishop who breaks these rules.

To date, no church official has been publicly sanctioned for cover-up, and a lack of accountability is something that survivors have been concerned about for years.

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