How canon law hinders ending abuse by priests
The 1983 revision put forward by Pope John Paul II to the entire code made it impossible for bishops to dismiss priests.
In Pope Francis’s letter responding to a Pennsylvania grand jury report, he wrote, “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” An important but often poorly understood reason for this is the church’s Code of Canon Law, which the pope alone can change.
Canon law, which governs the church and lays out its theology, has a complex history. It originated in early Christian communities, came to be called canon by the fourth-century councils, and was consolidated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1917.
