The New York Times is making much of its verification that the Catholic Church has written protocols for dealing with priests who father children.
Now, the Vatican has confirmed, apparently for the first time, that its department overseeing the world’s priests has general guidelines for what to do when clerics break celibacy vows and father children.
“I can confirm that these guidelines exist,” the Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti wrote in response to a query from The New York Times. “It is an internal document.”
The Catholic Church is the oldest continuously operating business on earth, and has been dealing with the problem — embarrassment, mainly — of priests’ illegitimate children for 1000-years. Why is it a surprise to anybody that the personnel manual addresses the matter?
Ho-hum.