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That the Church has been undermined owing to the disclosure of various forms of malpractice morally as well as in property and financial dealings has led Pope Francis to legalise a new version of Book vi of the Code of Canon Law that revises the penalty provisions in the Code of 1983. This study outlines its most salient features, i.e. increased severity, and brings out its limits, more particularly in the relationship between its penalty provisions and secular Law.