Pope Francis continued his clean sweep of the Catholic Church on Thursday, as he reconstructed laws that guide the Vatican City State-now, sexual violence, prostitution, possession of child pornography, or leaking sensitive information from within papacy walls can mean a prison sentencing of up to 12 years.
All clergy and lay people living and working in the Vatican City must follow these new laws, which differ from the dogmatic law that applies to the overall Catholic Church, the Associated Press reported.
The Pope's new legislation especially stressed crimes against children as one of the main issues the law will tackle.
Most of the Vatican's legal code stems from the 1889 Italian code. The Holy See decided it was necessary to update the municipality's legislation after signing treaties addressing global issues including the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, when he famously called underage slave labor a "disgusting phenomenon."
Along with children's rights, another issue Pope Francis is pushing regards financial transparency, in efforts to combat money-laundering.
After a butler for ex-Pope Benedict XVI Paolo Gabriele stole the former Holy See's personal papers and gave then to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi in 2012, the Vatican was ravaged by the publicity that followed. Nuzzi published a book exposing the "evil and corruption" that existed behind closed doors, according to the Associated Press.
Perhaps in response to this issue, penalties for violation of the new legislation have toughened up. Any person caught leaking or obtaining covert information could get a six month to two year prison sentencing, along with a 2,000 euro fine.
If any of the documentation concerns the "fundamental interests" of the Holy See or the Vatican's association with the international community, the penalty shoots up to eight years in jail.
The Vatican's new code also gives a more broad definition of what constitutes a child-related crime. Now, the specifics span the sale of children, child prostitution, recruiting children, sexual violence, sexual acts with children and the making and possession of child pornography, the Associated Press reported.
Under the old law, general child-sex crimes bore a maximum penalty of three to 10 years.
