New cardinal played top role in Vatican's response to U.S. sex crisis

Published: 2003-10-22

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Julian Herranz, the church's top canon law official, has played an important role in the Vatican's response to the clerical sex abuse crisis in the United States. The 73-year-old Spaniard, a member of the Catholic organization Opus Dei, was inducted into the College of Cardinals Oct. 21. He has served for more than 40 years in a number of Vatican positions and since 1994 has headed the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts. In 2002, as U.S. cardinals and bishops were discussing new norms for dealing with sex abuse cases, Cardinal Herranz criticized attempts to require church leaders to report all abuse accusations to civil authorities and turn over relevant documents. His remarks reflected widespread Vatican opinion that, while bishops are not above the law, they should not be acting as voluntary reporting agents for the state. At that time, Cardinal Herranz also argued that the church's own means of dealing with clerical sex abusers should not be short-circuited by policies adopted out of bishops' fear of civil liability.

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