The Vatican could make “spiritual abuse” a crime formalized in the law of the Catholic Church, rather than simply an aggravating circumstance for other crimes.
The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is forming a working group with the Dicastery for Legislative Texts with “the task of analyzing this possibility and presenting concrete proposals” on the topic, according to a document dated November 22 and posted online this week.
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According to the note, which was signed by the prefect of the DDF, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis, the term “false mysticism” is a “too broad and ambiguous expression” that needs to be refined in certain contexts of the Church.
The term appears in DDF regulations related to “problems and behaviors related to the discipline of faith, such as cases of pseudo-mysticism, alleged apparitions, visions and messages attributed to a supernatural origin,” the note observes.
The expression “false mysticism” is also occasionally used by canon lawyers in the context of crimes of abuse, although it is not currently a crime, or crime, under canon law, the document indicates.
The DDF said that “false mysticism” also appears in the 2024 dicastery document Rules to proceed in the discernment of supposed supernatural phenomenawhere it is specified that “the use of supposed supernatural experiences or recognized mystical elements as a means or pretext to exercise control over people or commit abuses must be considered of special moral gravity.”
At a press conference presenting the norms in May, Cardinal Fernández warned about the ambiguity of the term “false mysticism” and the need to clarify its use.
Ecclesiastical authorities “must be vigilant… False mysticism is used a lot and in many different ways,” he said.
The term can have “one meaning for one theologian and another meaning for another theologian; For some canonists it has a meaning, for others it has a broader meaning,” he added.
Cardinal Fernández said that the Church “must explain well what the crime is, but not use the term ‘false mysticism’.”
It is “possible to classify a crime as ‘spiritual abuse,’ avoiding the overly broad and ambiguous expression of ‘false mysticism,’” this week’s letter says.
The working group will be chaired by the prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, the Italian bishop Filippo Iannone.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Hannah Brockhaus
Hannah Brockhaus is Rome correspondent for Catholic News Agency. He grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.