Posted on 08/07/2003 9:54:10 AM PDT by polemikos
Boston, Aug. 07 (CWNews.com) - A CBS network news report, claiming that the Holy See orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, is based on a gross misinterpretation of a 1962 Vatican document.
In a sensationalist report aired on August 6, CBS Evening News claimed to have discovered a secret document proving that the Vatican had approved-- and even demanded-- a longstanding policy of covering up clerics' sexual misdeeds.
The document cited by CBS does nothing of the sort.
In fact the network's story misrepresented the Vatican document so thoroughly that it is difficult to attribute the inaccuracy to honest error.
The CBS story is based on a secret Instruction issued to bishops in March 1962 by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, then the prefect of the Holy Office (now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). That document sets forth the canonical procedures to be followed when a priest is charged with the ecclesiastical crime of "solicitation"-- that is, using the confessional to tempt penitents to engage in sexual activity.
[The Vatican document, in an awkward English translation, can be downloaded from the CBS News site. CBS also offers the Latin original.]
The Vatican document deals exclusively with solicitation: an offense which, by definition, occurs within the context of the Sacrament of Penance. And since that sacrament is protected by a shroud of absolute secrecy, the procedures for dealing with this ecclesiastical crime also invoke secrecy.
In short, by demanding secrecy in the treatment of these crimes, the Vatican was protecting the secrecy of the confessional. The policy outlined in that 1962 document is clearly not intended to protect predatory priests; on the contrary, the Vatican makes it clear that guilty priests should be severely punished and promptly removed from ministry.
It is important to keep in mind that the 1962 Vatican Instruction dealt exclusively with "solicitation" as that term is understood in ecclesiastical usage, under the terms of the Code of Canon Law. The policies set forth by Cardinal Ottaviani do not pertain to the sexual misdeeds of clerics, but to the efforts by priest to obtain sexual favors though the misuse of their confessional role.
It is also important to note that because solicitation takes place inside the confessional, only the accused priest and the penitent could possibly have direct evidence as to whether or not the crime took place. If the solicitation led to actual sexual activity, that misconduct could be the subject of an entirely separate investigation, not bound by the same rules of secrecy.
The crime of "solicitation" has always been viewed by the Catholic Church as an extremely serious offense, calling for the strongest available penalties. Cardinal Ottaviani stresses that any confessor who solicits sexual favors from his penitents should be suspended from ministry and stripped of all priestly privileges. These penalties apply to all cases of solicitation, whether they involve minor children or adults of either sex. The 1962 document is not concerned with all instances of solicitation; it does not concentrate on the solicitation of children.
The CBS report claimed:
The confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests-- anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church.That is inaccurate.
Nah, there's no cover up! Can't be. Why it's the Catholic church (rolling my eyes). And if you say ANYTHING against the Catholic church you're a bigot, hatemonger, Catholic basher or worse. Pssssst - Catholics can't tolerate criticism. It makes em feel bad. So truth must NOT be acknowledged under ANY circumstances.
Seriously, of course this despicable act is a cover up that went on for YEARS. Any clear thinking person can see that. Those that can't, don't think.
Otherwise, you would have seen that the Catholics here are not defending the actions the Church has taken in the past, but are defending the mis-use and deliberate mis-understanding of completely rational documents for the express purpose of castign aspersions.
The truth is bad enough. There is no reason to support lies.
SD
That's a crock - not worthy of a further response.
The pool of potential priests has shrunk because the number of young Catholic men has shrunk. But there are enough young men out there who might answer the call, and we are not talking about teen-agers, but men of college age or older. The scandal--and the Robinson incident--should have told us that openly homosexual men are grossly unqualified for the priesthood.
There have always been homosexuals in the priesthood but because the Church sought to weed them out, fae fewer than the number we have now. The Church has yet to address the question: what do we do about the ones we have now. One thing we must not do is to give them positions of authority. We may assume that there are already many of them in such positions, so this will make it very hard to purge the Church of them or even to minimize the damage they are capable of. The culture war continues and, as so often in the past, the enemy is within the walls.
The CBS report claimed:
The confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests-- anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church.
That is inaccurate.
That is a charitable understatement.
But the smear is out there. Mission accomplished.
It certainly was never the Vatican policy to coverup priestly crimes. In practice, some bishops covered up crimes, Cardinal Law being the most famous.
More concise. Just as accurate.
by Eric Convey
Friday, August 8, 2003
A Vatican document heralded recently as a blueprint for shrouding clergy sexual abuse in secrecy was in fact a narrow set of instructions for disciplining priests who used the confessional to solicit sex, canon lawyers said yesterday.
As such, several experts in church law said, the document will provide little fodder for plaintiffs' attorneys seeking to use it as proof that the Vatican ran a broad cover-up scheme to protect priests who molested children.
``I don't think it has anything to do with the sexual misconduct scandal,'' said Edward O'Flaherty, a Jesuit priest and canon lawyer based in Boston.
The 1962 document, reports of which surfaced in Massachusetts newspapers last week, prescribes stiff penalties for priests who misuse the confessional and for lay Catholics who fail to report such abuse.
Under church law, a priest who uses the confessional to seek sex from anyone - child or adult - is excommunicated.
``It's a question of sacramental practice,'' O'Flaherty said. ``Any person is free to go to the police or anyone else they want. It's a question of how the church handles the abuse of a sacrament.''
The document was presented to Massachusetts law enforcement officials late last month by civil lawyers Daniel Shea and Carmen Durso.
Shea also gave copies to media, including the Boston Herald.
An influential canonist speaking on condition of anonymity said the document ``is not the smoking gun that some civil lawyers want to make it.''
Several others noted that it never mentions dealing with civil authorities - either bringing abuse to their attention or hiding it from them.
Durso said he disagrees with canonists who consider the document a narrow description of solicitation in the confessional.
But even if they're right, he said, ``it doesn't make any difference. The pedophile priests regularly used all of the tools available to them, which included the rites of the church, the sacraments, all of the things that kids are taught to respect.'' The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer with extensive archives of church documents who provided the 1962 letter to Shea, also questioned yesterday whether it would prove to be useful in civil cases.
``Basically that document is about solicitation in the confessional,'' said Doyle, who has publicly criticized the church hierarchy for secrecy. ``(But) I think it's a good historical document and it illustrates the mindset of the Vatican in dealing with these problems.
``I still think that it's unfair to characterize that document as it has been,'' he said.
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