The Norms of the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (2001): Historical Introduction
The Holy See’s own account of how church law on the gravest offences developed, from the 1917 Code to the law of 2001 that reserved the sexual abuse of minors by clerics to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and its revision in 2010.
Read the text at vatican.va ↗John Paul II, Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, 30 April 2001 (unofficial English translation, Holy See) ↗
The congregation published this short history when the revised norms were issued in 2010. It says that John Paul II decided to include the sexual abuse of a minor under eighteen by a cleric among the offences reserved to the congregation, that the law was promulgated in the letter Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela on 30 April 2001, and that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone informed the bishops by a letter of 18 May 2001. It adds that Benedict XVI approved a revised text on 21 May 2010.
It is an official summary, written by the body whose competence it describes, and is cited for the dates and content of the law. The motu proprio itself, linked above, promulgates the norms without setting them out.
Cited in
- 6 January 2002, firm date