New statutes clarify relation between DDF, Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors

June 15, 2026

Pope Leo XIV approved new statutes that will provide direction to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors for a three-year trial period.

The statutes—announced in Italian and English, but currently published only in Italian—replace the commission’s original statutes, issued in 2015. With 14 articles instead of the original six, the new statutes provide substantially more detail about the commission’s responsibilities.

The hew statutes define the commission’s collaboration with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Article 3) and address abuse reporting and victim support (Article 6). They provide for the appointment of regional consultors by the commission’s president (Article 12). They also formally provide for an annual report (Article 7); the commission began to publish annual reports in 2024.

Praedicate Evangelium, the 2022 apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, placed the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors within the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Article 78). The new statutes establish a collaborative relation between the commission and the dicastery—with the commission offering advice, and the two bodies exchanging information (Article 3)—but also establish that the commission, through its president, reports directly to the Pope (Article 1).

“The Statutes mark an important step in deepening our shared responsibility to protect and care for the most vulnerable,” said Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France, the commission’s president since 2025. “They reflect listening, to victims and survivors, to safeguarding experts, and to the experience of local Churches, and reaffirm that safeguarding remains a central priority.”

The commission stated that work on the revised statutes began in 2022, with the first draft prepared only a month after the publication of Praedicate Evangelium. The process of revising the draft, which entailed collaboration with curial dicasteries, took four years.

Pope Leo approved the new statutes during a May 20 audience with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness. Cardinal Parolin announced the new statutes on June 13.

 

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Further information:

• Rescriptum Ex Audientia Sanctissimi (Holy See Press Office, English, 6/13/26)
• Rescriptum Ex Audientia Sanctissimi (Holy See Press Office, Italian, 6/13/26)
• Vatican gives Commission new Statutes, Pope approves three year trial (Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, 6/13/26)