The Secretary of Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Mons. Juan Ignacio Arrieta, said that the Catholic Church “is struggling to be transparent,” but identified as one of the current challenges “putting up to the height on patrimonial matters.”
“There is also to renew, also up to transparency in patrimonial issues,” said the canonist who operates as one of the main responsible for this organism of the Roman curia.
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In conversation with ACI Press last Thursday, three days before the Vatican was held in the Vatican Jubilee of Justice with close to 15.000 personasthe canonist explained that this demand is not due to the fact that “there are particularly serious crimes, but for usual uses that were typical of a society a little anachronistic.”
Mons Arrieta specified in this regard that the Church must “catch up on the patrimonial aspect” although it made it clear that the management of the assets and heritage of the Church varies greatly according to the country and the cultural, legal and economic context.
“The way in which the Church works, patrimonially, in Italy or in Spain, it has nothing to do with how it works in Nigeria or Gabon or in Indonesia,” he said.
Born on April 10, 1951 in Vitoria, (Spain), since 2007 Secretary of Dicastery for Legislative Texts, whose function is to guarantee the correct interpretation and application of the laws of the Church worldwide.
Mons. Arrieta, who was ordained a priest for the Prelature of Opus Dei in 1977, detailed in this regard that the Church also refers to the issues of the law of the jurisdiction where “in patrimonial issues” is present.
“The right of the Church fundamentally protects the assets of the Church, which are the sacraments, the world structure of the Church, of the Christian communities, which is a parish, which is a diocese,” he explained.
12 years of work for criminal discipline to apply more clearly
Mons. Arrieta was one of the main architects of the reform of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law of 2021, which although it did not intend to harden the discipline in the subject of minors, said the criminal discipline so that it can be applied with certainty and clarity throughout the Church when necessary.
It was a job that “took us 12 years, consulting everyone, but it has been a fairly long job,” he explained.
This reform of the Code of Canon Law better defined some legal instruments and, for the first time, established the possibility of suspending and sanctioning the laity who commit crimes of abuse.
The reason is clear. In the last decades the participation of lay faithful in trades, ecclesiastical ministries, is much greater than in previous times, when those charges were occupied only by clergy. “This person has been entrusted with the Church a particular authority, which demands a particular exemplarity,” said Mons. Arrieta.
On the other hand, “the other Catholic will already be the state who puts the corresponding sanction.”
The Church cannot punish any crime
As indicated, the Church cannot “punish any” crime that occurs in society, since it is present throughout the world and coexists with the civil system of any country.
“If you have to claim a right, it is enough that you go to the Civil Guard, the gendarmes, (to which) is the civil authority, because she is in charge of most of those things. Instead, the Church is interested in protecting the sacraments, the Word of God, because there are excommunions, avoid desecration, avoid the traffic of documents, of religious certificates and, above all, protect certain states of life,” said Mons. Arrieta
Canon Criminal Law, reduced to some “50 crimes”
In this sense, in recent years, canon law has reduced criminal typification to about 50 crimes, when in the past it was much more extensive, because everyone else “already pursues civil society”, that is, “they are already civil crimes.”
On the other hand, he said that today the reality of sexual abuses “is very visible” and is better known.
“Now it has gained greater sensitivity, also social sensitivity has grown a lot. We are in 2025, in 1925 social sensitivity, given so many aspects, including this one that we talked about abuse, sensitivity was different, or they were taboús, or no one should speak and other things,” he said.
And he added: “It’s like when you go to the doctor and say, look you have this disease, before you didn’t know, then the moment you already know and it is concrete that it is true, you can start a therapy.”
On Saturday Mons. Arrieta pronounced the inaugural discourse of the Jubilee of Justice in which he urged the entire legal profession to be cautious before the “danger of formalism”, respecting the dignity of people and letting themselves be guided by the “objective truth of the specific case.”
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.