with Penal Sanctions in the Church after it became clear that the code’s description
of crimes and penalties needed to be modified. The revised penal legislation would
“allow pastors to use it as a more agile, salvific and corrective instrument, to be
employed promptly and with pastoral charity to avoid more serious evils and to
soothe the wounds caused by human weakness.”

The Dicastery for Legislative Texts has also drawn up a User Guide for Book VI of
the Code of Canon Law containing a “precise explanation of the norms for their
correct application.”