The Plenary Assembly of Bishops has approved the Instruction on the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people, a document that serves as a “guide” for dioceses and religious congregations on how to act when reporting a case.
This was announced at a press conference by the Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), César García Magán, who explained that the instruction includes the canonical norms on abuse and serves as “help material” for those who receive notification of a possible case.
As he has detailed, the document is “a kind of guide” on how to act when a signal has been received.
The first step is to carry out a preliminary investigation, then the Holy See is informed, which is the one that determines whether to proceed criminally or through administrative channels and indicates the steps to follow, as well as the precautionary measures that must be imposed. .
The EEC has been working on this instruction since 2019 and García Magán recalled that the November 2022 Plenary Assembly approved some 'Guide Lines' for action in cases of sexual abuse against minors that would be applied jointly in all dioceses.
In this Assembly it is approved as an Instruction for the Church and it is updated with the new provisions established in the definitive text of 'Vos estis Lux mundi', approved by Pope Francis and which will enter into force on April 30.
This document, which will be updated each time the current canonical regulations change, “reinforces the normative aspect of the document, which will have the force of norms and not just guidelines,” he stressed.
Thus, it will be mandatory both for the dioceses and for the laity who are in charge of religious institutions.
In addition, during the meeting of the Plenary Assembly, the bishops discussed the “Hospitality Corridors” project, which is coordinated by the Migration Department of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care and Human Promotion and which has already been launched with experiences pilot projects aimed at young migrants who are left out of protection mechanisms.
The bishops ask to prohibit surrogacy outside of Spain
The Spanish bishops have also warned that surrogacy is “unequivocally” a “new form of exploitation of women” and have called for a law that “prevents” this practice not only in Spain but also abroad.
“Surrogate motherhood is, unequivocally, a new form of exploitation of women, contrary to the dignity of the human person, since it uses the female body, and her entire person, reducing her to being a human incubator”, they emphasize in a note of the Episcopal Commission for the Laity, Family and Life, approved this Friday by the bishops, during the Plenary Assembly.
They also add that with the so-called “rental uterus” maternity becomes an “object of trade, which is bought and sold.”
At the same time, the prelates point out that “there is no right to procreation and therefore a right to the child” and call to protect the best interests of the minor.
For all these reasons, they believe that “legislation is necessary to prevent this practice of surrogate motherhood”, which, although it is already illegal in Spain, is allowed in other countries.
“It is spoken not only for Spain, but also in a general sense, there are countries that have approved it, others have not,” said the general secretary and spokesman for the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), this Friday, at the press conference end of the Plenary Assembly of Bishops.
In any case, he has specified that the note does not mention “any specific or media case” although these “reflections” are published a few weeks after the news of the surrogate motherhood of the presenter Ana Obregón, and they wanted the voice of the Church is heard within the social debate provoked by this case.