Former Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope in March with the agreement among the cardinal-electors that he would reform the scandal-prone Vatican City and the Catholic Church.

As part of the broad reforms that Pope Francis is introducing in the scandal-ridden Roman Catholic Church, the pontiff issued on Thursday a Motu Proprio through an Apostolic Letter.

The document changes the Holy See laws and names sexual abuse of children as a specific crime. The Vatican would also implement international anti-money laundering rules in the hope of ending years of financial scandal hounding the Catholic Church. It also criminalised leaks of Vatican information.

With the amendment, child prostitution, sexual violence and sexual relations with children and child pornography are included in a wider definition of crimes against minors. Covered by the new law are both clergy and lay people who live and work in Vatican City.

With the reform, a minor is defined as anyone below 18 and Vatican prosecutors are allow to file a case against an erring clergy or layman on his own even if the victim or guardians opt not to file a criminal complaint.

It is different from the canon law that covers the Catholic Church worldwide. With the issuance of the Apostolic Letter, Vatican's penal code based on the 1889 Italian code is updated to reflect the Church's signing of international treaties as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Apostolic Letter also renews Vatican's commitment to international conventions against global crimes like money laundering and terrorism and extends the criminal liability of officers and employees of the Roman Curia that would make them answerable to crimes even if committed outside Vatican.

For breaching Vatican confidentially, violators who disclose or receive confidential information or documentation could be jailed from six months to two years and fined $2,500. If the materials leaked involve fundamental interest of the Church or its diplomatic relations with other nations, the penalty could be up to eight years prison term.

It would be recalled that a former butler of Pope Emeritus XVI was arrested for stealing documents and leaking them, but the former pope forgave him.

Even before he issued the Motu Proprio, Pope Francis appointed an advisory board made up of cardinals that would reform the Curia and has opened a special panel to find was to reform the Vatican bank which was again implicated two weeks ago with the arrest of a Vatican monsignor for smuggling euro to Italy from Switzerland.