The Obligation to Report: The Relationship between Article 3 and 4 of VELM and the Prescriptions of Canon 1548 §2

For the past few decades, the Roman Catholic Church has experienced the excruciating pain of the sexual scandals of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clerics. The situation has caused considerable damage, particularly to the priesthood and its hierarchy. From 2001 to date, the Church has tried to restore justice and repair scandal by enacting new legislation to protect the aforementioned individuals and by promulgating new norms, for instance, SST (2001, revised 2010), Congregation for Clergy (2009), and recently VELM, (2019). Therefore, the research proposal considers the subject of reporting as outlined in Articles 3 & 4 of VELM, in particular, that there seems to be a conflict between the terms of canon 1548, §2 and articles 3 & 4 of VELM. Thus, the central question in the study is: Do articles 3 and 4 of VELM derogate from the prescriptions of canon 1548 §2? Unfortunately, VELM does not provide an answer in the document. The issue is neither expressed implicitly nor explicitly in the document; hence, it is unclear whether indeed there is a deorgation from the current norm since VELM does not even end with the customary  “anything to the contrary notwithstanding.” Finally, the study will examine the the question of how clerics have been made mandatory reporters in various state laws and countries and how VELM will impact current civil statutes.