Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (SST) is an Apostolic Letter originally issued by St. John Paul II on April 30, 2001. It was revised by Pope Benedict XVI on May 21, 2010, and updated and amended by Pope Francis on October 11, 2021 and on December 17, 2019 respectively. SST gives the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) the responsibility to deal with and judge a series of particularly serious crimes (delicta graviora) within the ambit of Canon Law. SST defines the Church’s graviora delicta, or major crimes against the faith and sacraments, for which the DDF has exclusive authority for prosecution and judgment. As updated and amended, one of SST’s stipulations is that in cases of sexual abuse of minors, “ignorance or error on the part of the cleric about the age of a minor does not diminish the gravity of the circumstances, or extinguish the crime.”
