On June 1, 2021, the Vatican unveiled its updated penal code. Unlike the previous code, published in 1983, this revised code emphasizes the obligation of bishops to enforce penalties. Note below the closing paragraph of Rocca’s article:
“Vatican Revises Church Law in Wake of Sex Abuse, Financial Scandals,” Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2021
By Francis X. Rocca
“The revised code also includes a law against women’s ordination, specifying automatic excommunication for anyone ‘who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order.’ Another update explicitly forbids the recording of confessions.”