The Pope has ordered the creation of a study group, which will include members of the dicasteries of the Doctrine of the Faith and Legislative Texts, with the aim of including the crime of spiritual abuse in the Code of Canon Law. A criminal classification process that first goes through a more adequate determination of matters related to spirituality and supposed supernatural phenomena.
The Pontiff’s decision comes after receiving in a private audience on November 22 the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández.
That day the Argentine cardinal gave the Pope a note in which – as reported Vatican News— he was informed that “in ecclesiastical law there is no crime classified as false mysticism”, although this expression has sometimes been used by canonists “in a sense closely linked to crimes of abuse.”
In the note that bears the title False mysticism and spiritual abuseFernández points out that false mysticism “refers to spiritual proposals that harm the harmony of the Catholic vision of God and our relationship with the Lord.”
A legal vacuum that the Pope wants to remedy with the creation of this study group, chaired by the Carmelite Filippo Iannone, which will analyze this possibility.
In any case, in the new Rules to proceed in the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomenathe DDF has already specified that “the use of supposed supernatural experiences or recognized mystical elements as a means or pretext to exercise control over people or commit abuses must be considered of special moral gravity.” This consideration allows the situation described there to be evaluated as an aggravating circumstance if it occurs together with the crimes.
