Il Vademecum sui casi di abuso sessuale di minori commessi da chierici: Profili teorici e pratici ed. by Claudio Papale, and; Le nuove norme sui delitti riservati: Aspetti sostanziali e procedurali ed. by Claudio Papale (review)

These most recent volumes in the important series dedicated to making more widely known the ever-changing norms, procedure, and praxis regarding delicts reserved to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) are useful and necessary for both practitioners and academics alike. As has been the case for over a decade, the faculty of canon law of the Pontifical University Urbaniana, collaborating closely with the DDF, arranges an "intensive course" each spring on some aspect of reserved delicts, the proceedings ordinarily being published the following year. All of the contributions are in Italian, except for Geisinger's, which are in English.

Number seventeen of the series contains six papers—four by officials of the then-CDF, two by professors of canon law faculties—on the Vademecum of July 16, 2020 (AAS 112 [2020] 681–713), together with an appendix containing the Vademecum itself (103–126). Great care must be exercised in using this volume, since nearly all of the relevant norms were subrogated before it even appeared. Nevertheless, since only laws more favorable to the accused are retroactive (cf. cc. 9; 1313), the subrogated norms remain relevant and worthy of study.

The contribution of Jordi Bertomeu Farnós (7–18), an official of the CDF, states that the purpose of the Vademecum is "to achieve a more homogenous material or substantive praxis" (7) by means of "offering solid, juridic-professional criteria" (14) for applying the penal norms in force. While certainly a desideratum, vague statements in the Vademecum such as "the typology of [the delictum contra sextum] is quite broad" (no. 1) fall short of the mark. Although correctly noting "the lack of experts" (14) in the field, the author makes basic mistakes in terminology (e.g., referring to the subject of a preliminary investigation as "the accused" [15]). Further, the author's statement that a "state of emergency" (16) exists which continues to justify the suspension of procedural guarantees (e.g., the right to a trial or to recourse to the Apostolic Signatura) seems like special pleading. Officials of the CDF have been making similar arguments since the promulgation of the code as can be observed in the exchange of letters recounted in the volume under review (32–34). To the author's credit, his conclusion indicates a number of procedural and substantive deficiencies of the law (17–18).

The contribution of Matteo Visioli (19–43), then undersecretary for the CDF, provides an invaluable description of the praxis of the CDF concerning clerics who petition to return to the lay state after having been denounced or accused of a reserved delict. Hitherto unpublished statistics are provided (22–24), together with an account of the rationale for the praxis (34–38) and suggestions for the ius condendum (38–42). The contribution is, however, flawed in several respects. The author states that "the dispensability of penal laws is particularly useful to highlight in this context" (27). Although the Signatura can grant petitions for dispensations from procedural laws, no authority below the Roman Pontiff is competent to dispense from penal laws. The DDF, in fact, directly petitions the Roman Pontiff for his decision (SST/2010 art. 21 §2, 2º) or judgment (SST/2021 art. 26) in virtue of the special law of SST, since "the particular derogates from the general" (RJ 34 in VIº); a cleric's petition is based upon canon 290, 3º (see SST/2021 art. 27). Neither the DDF nor the Roman Pontiff, therefore, "dispenses" from any penal law in such cases (cf. c. 1344). Secondly, the author does not...