What is Vos Estis Lux Mundi? How Does It Affect Church Abuse Cases?
Earlier this month, Awake hosted a Courageous Conversation about Vos Estis Lux Mundi, the 2019 papal decree that created new church laws and procedures for reporting and investigating sexual abuse by leaders in the Catholic Church. Here we offer a primer on this set of Church laws, based on information shared by the experts who took part in Awake’s conversation: Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability.org, an extensive archive of information about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and JD Flynn of The Pillar, which provides news and analysis of the Catholic Church.
What exactly is Vos Estis Lux Mundi?
Vos Estis Lux Mundi is “best understood as a procedural policy guide or manual” issued by Pope Francis in 2019, said Flynn, who trained as a canon lawyer. The aim of Vos Estis was to set criteria for “investigating allegations of either abuse or administrative negligence… [for] failing to act when action was needed on the part of bishops and other leadership figures in a church,” he said. The title of this policy guide is Latin for “You Are the Light of the World.”
Anne Barrett Doyle and JD Flynn
“People who have concerns about the immediate personal conduct of a bishop or the way he has handled misconduct or allegations of misconduct can make reports” under Vos Estis, Flynn explained. In theory, such reports are investigated locally in consultation with the Vatican, and “then presumably some action can be taken,” he added.
Some of its main features: Vos Estis mandates that all priests and religious brothers and sisters report abuse cases to church authorities. It prohibits retaliation against whistleblowers and broadens the definition of a vulnerable person. Vos Estis also required every diocese around the world to establish “easily accessible systems” for reporting abuse claims by June 1, 2020.
Barrett Doyle noted that Vos Estis outlined, for the very first time, how reports of abuse are supposed to flow to the Vatican. “Incredibly, this information flow hadn’t been clearly articulated before,” she said.
What led to the creation of Vos Estis Lux Mundi?
This document was one result of Pope Francis’s 2019 global summit of bishops, called in the aftermath of high-profile revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. These included the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, which found widespread sexual abuse of children by clergy in six dioceses, and news that then-cardinal Theodore McCarrick had abused seminarians and children for decades.
This news led to an “extraordinary outcry of laypeople and clerics and religious, Catholics and non practicing Catholics, all around the world,” Flynn said, adding that there was “extraordinary pressure” for Church leaders to respond.
Who investigates Vos Estis cases?
Vos Estis is based on a “metropolitan model,” in which bishops investigate fellow bishops. If allegations are made against a bishop—claiming that he directly abused someone or mishandled abuse claims—the report is sent to an archbishop who leads the region, known as the “metropolitan,” as well as the appropriate “dicastery” or department in Rome. The dicastery has 30 days to issue instructions allowing the metropolitan or other authority to investigate the charges. The Vos Estis document states that reports on the investigation must be submitted to the Vatican every 30 days and the investigation completed within 90 days, but it’s unclear if this is being followed.
Before Vos Estis was promulgated in 2019, U.S. bishops had been working on a proposal to create lay oversight boards to investigate bishops. But this was halted by the Vatican in the run-up to the bishops’ summit in Rome, and the metropolitan model was announced soon after, Flynn said. Barrett Doyle made the case that the lack of lay oversight prevents transparency.
“It’s often noted that Vos Estis reduced this lay role to something that is fragmented, powerless, advisory only,” she said. “A lay person can be brought in as an investigator … and then their role ends as soon as the case is closed.”
What changes to Vos Estis were made in 2023?
Pope Francis made a few revisions to Vos Estis in 2023. For example, he broadened it to cover the investigation of lay leaders of movements in the Church if they are accused of perpetrating abuse themselves or failing to address allegations of abuse in their communities.
The revised Vos Estis also includes stronger language to protect whistleblowers who make reports about their local leaders, although Flynn said that the whistleblower protections “have not been what the Church said they would be.”
How can I get information about a Vos Estis investigation?
Once a Vos Estis report has been filed, information from the Vatican about a potential investigation or the result of an investigation is rarely available. “Vos Estis has not, especially in the United States, been applied with transparency,” Flynn said. “Something which was rolled out with a promise of transparency has been applied in secret. And the Holy See has taken great pains to keep … Vos Estis investigations secret, with few exceptions, and to discourage diocesan bishops from disclosing the existence of Vos Estis Lux Mundi investigations.”
He also suggested that the apostolic nuncio (the pope’s representative) in each country has influence in how Vos Estis is applied there. Flynn and Barrett Doyle noted that the nuncio in Poland, for example, has been more transparent than others, issuing at least minimal information about why investigated bishops there have been removed from office.
How do I make a Vos Estis Lux Mundi report?
To make a Vos Estis report about sexual misconduct or intentional interference in a sexual abuse investigation by a bishop of the United States, visit www.ReportBishopAbuse.org, the website of the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service.
Barrett Doyle and Flynn noted that people who make reports have said they do not always receive follow-up information about the status of their report. Both suggested that people who make a report might also consider alerting local news outlets or writing a letter to the editor to share that they have submitted a report. Press coverage may increase the likelihood of a response, they said.
A Note from Awake: If you choose to make a report through Vos Estis or to contact members of the press with your story, it’s wise to have a good support system established to accompany you through this process. Please consider sharing your experience with trusted family members, friends, or a therapist, and feel free to reach out to Awake to get connected with our peer support offerings for abuse survivors.
—Sara Larson and Erin O’Donnell
