question: Why does the catholic church deal with sexual assault allegations against priests as opposed to the law?
comment: You’re mistaken. The priests answer to the same laws as you and I as applicable in their jurisdiction. However, with all situations such as this, the prosecution needs credible witnesses and bonafide proof to bring these charges against them. This is called due process and it’s guaranteed to all American citizens. The Roman Catholic Church does have the right to conduct its own investigation and then decide whether or not to strip a priest of their privileges based of this internal review process. Long story short, there are two different processes involved here and they act independently of each other.
passages: In 2003, Pope John Paul II stated that "there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young".
  
  Section::::Response from the Holy See.:New rules regarding ordination.
  
  Because a significant majority of victims were teenage boys, the Vatican instituted reforms to prevent future United States abuse by requiring background checks for Church employees and issued new rules disallowing ordination of men with "deep–seated homosexual tendencies".
  
  Section::::Response from the Holy See.:The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
   BULLET::::- the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania be completely eliminated
  
  BULLET::::- the window for filing civil suits be expanded
  
  BULLET::::- the laws requiring reporting of abuse be strengthened
  
  BULLET::::- a requirement be put into law mandating that any non-disclosure agreement include the statement that a non-disclosure agreement does not (and legally can not) prohibit victims from talking to law enforcement
   In June 2002, the USCCB unanimously promulgated a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, sometimes referred to as the Dallas Charter. The charter committed the Catholic Church in the U.S. to the goal of providing a "safe environment" for all children and youth participating in activities sponsored by the Church. To accomplish this, the U.S. bishops pledged to establish uniform procedures for handling sex-abuse allegations against lay teachers in Catholic schools, parish staff members, coaches and other people who represent the Church to young people.
   A Vatican spokesman stated, "When individual institutions of national churches are implicated, that does not regard the competence of the Holy See...The competence of the Holy See is at the level of the Holy See."No excuses for priestly child abuse/ref
   The Charter instituted reforms to prevent future abuse by requiring background checks for Church employees. The Charter requires dioceses faced with an allegation to alert the authorities, conduct an investigation and remove the accused from duty. A "Dallas Morning News" article reported nearly two-thirds of the bishops attending the conference had covered for sexually abusive priests. According to "Catholic News Service" by 2008, the U.S. church had trained "5.8 million children to recognize and report abuse," run criminal checks on volunteers and employees and trained them to create a safe environment for children.
  
  Section::::Church responses.:Diocesan responses.:United States.:Reception by the laity.
   In addition to cases of sodomy, oral penetration, and lewd and sexual acts against a minor, cases have been brought forth against members of the Catholic hierarchy who did not report abuse allegations to the civil authorities. In many cases they deliberately moved sexually abusive priests to other locations where the clergy continued their acts of sexual aggression towards minors. – this has led to a number of fraud cases in the United States, where the Church has been accused of misleading victims by deliberately relocating priests accused of abuse instead of removing them from their positions.
   Section::::Response of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.:Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
  
  In June 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) unanimously approved a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that pledged the Catholic Church in the U.S. to providing a "safe environment" for all children in Church-sponsored activities. To accomplish this, the U.S. bishops made a commitment to develop uniform procedures for handling sex-abuse allegations against lay teachers in Catholic schools, parish staff members, coaches and other people who represent the Church to young people.
   Because a significant majority of victims were teenage boys, the Vatican instituted reforms to prevent future United States abuse by requiring background checks for Church employees and issued new rules disallowing ordination of men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies". They now require dioceses faced with an allegation to alert the authorities, conduct an investigation and remove the accused from duty.
  
  Section::::UN human rights council in Geneva.
   However, sex abuse cases of adults and cases of non-sexual abuse have also been reported. On February 5, 2019, Pope Francis acknowledged that nuns had been sexually abused by Catholic priests and bishops, citing as an example the closure of an order by his predecessor 'because this slavery of women had entered it -- slavery, even to the point of sexual slavery'.
  
  Section::::Abuse cases by country.
   Before "The Boston Globe"s coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, handling of sexual abuse allegations was largely left up to the discretion of individual bishops. After the number of allegations exploded following the "Globe"'s series of articles, U.S. bishops felt compelled to formulate a coordinated response at the episcopal conference level.
   A 2006 study by Jesuit Georgetown University Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) found lay Catholics were unaware of the specific steps that the church has decided to take, but 78% strongly approved reporting allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities and 76% strongly approved of removing people credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.
  
  Section::::Church responses.:Diocesan responses.:United States.:Ongoing investigations.
   By 2008, the U.S. church had trained 5.8 million children to recognize and report abuse. It had run criminal checks on 1.53 million volunteers and employees, 162,700 educators, 51,000 clerics and 4,955 candidates for ordination. It had trained 1.8 million clergy, employees and volunteers in creating a safe environment for children.
  
  Section::::Response from the Holy See.
  
  Section::::Response from the Holy See.:Initial response.
   The motu proprio extends the application of the Vatican law to the Roman Curia and its personnel. It requires that, when recruiting staff, the candidate's suitability to interact with minors must be ascertained.
   Section::::Prevalence.:Poland.
  
  During 2013 the public in this deeply Catholic country became concerned about reports of child sex abuse scandals within the Church, some of which reached the courts, and the poor response by the church. The Church resisted demands to pay compensation to victims.
   The motu proprio extends the application of the Vatican law to the Roman Curia and its personnel. It requires that, when recruiting staff, the candidate's suitability to interact with minors must be ascertained.
   Section::::Debate over causes.:Male culture of the church.
  
  Italian academic wrote in "L'Osservatore Romano" that a greater presence of women in the Vatican could have prevented clerical sexual abuse from taking place.
   For the most part, responding to allegations of sexual abuse in a diocese was left to the jurisdiction of the bishop or archbishop. Many of the accused priests were forced to resign or were laicized. In addition, several bishops who had participated in the cover-up were also forced to resign or retire.
   In June 2014, the chairman of the USCCB's National Review Board reported that Conley's diocese and three eparchies had yet to comply with the USCCB's charter requiring every diocese to submit its procedures for the protection of children to the Review Board for an audit.
  
  Section::::Response of the Church.:Response of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.:Essential Norms.
   The motu proprio extends the application of the Vatican law to the Roman Curia and its personnel. It requires that, when recruiting staff, the candidate's suitability to interact with minors must be ascertained.
   Section::::The Motu Proprio "Vos estis lux mundi".
   In response the Roman Catholic Church published its "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders" in 2005. However this did not address the significant problem of heterosexual abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders.
  
  Section::::Canon law.
   Some of the accused priests were forced to resign. Some priests whose crimes fell within statutes of limitation are in jail. Some have been laicized. Others — because they are elderly, because of the nature of their offenses, or because they have had some success fighting the charges — cannot be laicized under canon law. Some priests live in retreat houses that are carefully monitored and sometimes locked.
   In response to the failure of many organisations to report abuse to the police, lawmakers have changed the law to make reporting of abuse to police compulsory. In 2002, [[Massachusetts]] passed a law requiring religious officials to report the abuse of children.
  
  In response to these allegations, both ecclesiastical and civil authorities have implemented procedures to prevent sexual abuse of minors by clergy and to report and punish it if and when it occurs.
  
  Section::::Catholic Church position.
  
  Section::::Catholic Church position.:"Best medical advice available at the time".
   The law mandates that each diocese in the world sets up, by June 2020, "one or more public, stable and easily accessible systems for submission of reports" concerning sexual abuse. As noted by Andrea Tornielli, "the legislation does not specify what these "systems" consist of, because it leaves operational choices to the diocese; and these may differ according to various cultures and local conditions". 
  
  Section::::Reporting obligations.
   Before the "Boston Globe" coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, handling of sexual abuse allegations was largely left up to the discretion of individual bishops. After the number of allegations exploded following the Globe's series of articles, U.S. bishops felt compelled to formulate a coordinated response at the episcopal conference level.
  
presuppositions: The law does not deal with sexual assault allegations against Catholic priests. Catholic church deals with sexual assault allegations.
corrections: The law deals with sexual assault allegations against Catholic priests. Priests answer to the same laws as you and I.
raw_presuppositions: The law does not deal with sexual assault allegations against Catholic priests. Catholic church deals with sexual assault allegations.
raw_corrections: The law deals with sexual assault allegations against Catholic priests. Priests answer to the same laws as you and I.