The paper attempts to grasp the normative tools with which the Catholic Church, throughout history, has imagined to cope with the issue of pedophilia among its members. The institution institution’s responses to the violation of the sixth commandment made use of penal and corrective measures which, although proven since time immemorial, have been visibly ineffective, or incredibly effective if we consider the ability to stifle the clamor of the phenomenon for so long. The paper focuses on especially the measure of fraternal correction which appears in the Gospel and became a specific issue in Augustine and Thomas Aquinas until the post post-tridentine era. The analysis of certain texts of the curia from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day suggests that fraternal correction was the predominantly practiced expedient to avoid the trial against clerics accused of sexual abuse.
