"Pope Francis strengthens Catholic Church's sex abuse laws"

Pope Francis has updated a 2019 church law aimed at holding senior churchmen accountable for covering up sexual abuse cases, expanding it to cover lay Catholic leaders and reaffirming that vulnerable adults and not just children can be victims of abuse when they are unable to freely consent. The law was praised at the time for laying out precise mechanisms to investigate complicit bishops and religious superiors, but implementation has been uneven, and abuse survivors have criticized the Vatican for a continued lack of transparency about the cases.