T
tuopaolo
Guest
Steven Merten:
Also, to simply assume that a Bishop if he knows that one of his priests – one of his sons – has committed sexual abuse is obliged to report it to the State is erroneous. Consider what these fine churchmen have to say and don’t dismiss it out of hand:
natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/053102/053102h.htm
The four Vatican officials who have spoken on the issue are Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, the No. 2 figure in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Julian Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts; Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a consultor to several Vatican agencies and a judge on a Vatican court.
*Bertone’s comments came in a February interview with 30 Giorni, an Italian Catholic magazine directed by former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Bertone argued that a priest should be able to confide in his bishop without fear of legal consequences.
“In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded,” Bertone said. “Naturally civil society has the obligation to defend its citizens. But it must also respect the ‘professional secrecy’ of priests, as it respects the professional secrecy of other categories, a respect that cannot be reduced simply to the inviolable seal of the confessional.
“If a priest cannot confide in his bishop for fear of being denounced,” Bertone said, “then it would mean that there is no more liberty of conscience.”
Herranz’s analysis came in an April 29 address at the Catholic University in Milan (NCR, May 17). He called the demand for bishops to report priests an “unwarranted simplification.”
“When ecclesiastical authorities deal with these delicate problems, they not only must respect the presumption of innocence, they also have to honor the rapport of trust, and the consequent secrecy of the office, inherent in relations between a bishop and his priest collaborators,” Herranz said. “Not to honor these exigencies would bring damages of great seriousness for the church.”
The strongest language came in a May 16 news conference in Rome with Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras. Rodriguez, 59, is seen as a leading Latin American candidate to succeed John Paul II.
“Pedophilia is a sickness, and those with this sickness must leave the priesthood. But we must not move from this to remedies that are non-Christian. … For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. We are totally different, and I’d be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests. I say this with great clarity,” Rodriguez said.
“We must not forget that we are pastors, not agents of the FBI or CIA.”
Finally, Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, dean of the canon law faculty at Rome’s Gregorian University and a judge for the Apostolic Signatura, considered the Vatican’s supreme court, addressed the issue in the May 18 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica. The journal is considered quasi-official since it is reviewed by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State prior to publication.
“Certainly it does not seem pastoral behavior when a bishop or religious superior who has received a complaint informs the legal authorities of the fact in order to avoid being implicated in a civil process that the victim could undertake,” Ghirlanda wrote.
A law that is unjust is no law at all. The State doesn’t “allow” priests to respect the seal. The obligation of priests to respect the seal and the corresponding right of priests to do so comes from the authority of the Church and does not depend in any way on the State no matter what Nazi-style actions it may take in contravention to divine law. The State has the obligation to protect children but NOT at the cost of violating the moral law.
Also, to simply assume that a Bishop if he knows that one of his priests – one of his sons – has committed sexual abuse is obliged to report it to the State is erroneous. Consider what these fine churchmen have to say and don’t dismiss it out of hand:
natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/053102/053102h.htm
The four Vatican officials who have spoken on the issue are Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, the No. 2 figure in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Julian Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts; Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a consultor to several Vatican agencies and a judge on a Vatican court.
*Bertone’s comments came in a February interview with 30 Giorni, an Italian Catholic magazine directed by former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Bertone argued that a priest should be able to confide in his bishop without fear of legal consequences.
“In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded,” Bertone said. “Naturally civil society has the obligation to defend its citizens. But it must also respect the ‘professional secrecy’ of priests, as it respects the professional secrecy of other categories, a respect that cannot be reduced simply to the inviolable seal of the confessional.
“If a priest cannot confide in his bishop for fear of being denounced,” Bertone said, “then it would mean that there is no more liberty of conscience.”
Herranz’s analysis came in an April 29 address at the Catholic University in Milan (NCR, May 17). He called the demand for bishops to report priests an “unwarranted simplification.”
“When ecclesiastical authorities deal with these delicate problems, they not only must respect the presumption of innocence, they also have to honor the rapport of trust, and the consequent secrecy of the office, inherent in relations between a bishop and his priest collaborators,” Herranz said. “Not to honor these exigencies would bring damages of great seriousness for the church.”
The strongest language came in a May 16 news conference in Rome with Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras. Rodriguez, 59, is seen as a leading Latin American candidate to succeed John Paul II.
“Pedophilia is a sickness, and those with this sickness must leave the priesthood. But we must not move from this to remedies that are non-Christian. … For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. We are totally different, and I’d be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests. I say this with great clarity,” Rodriguez said.
“We must not forget that we are pastors, not agents of the FBI or CIA.”
Finally, Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, dean of the canon law faculty at Rome’s Gregorian University and a judge for the Apostolic Signatura, considered the Vatican’s supreme court, addressed the issue in the May 18 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica. The journal is considered quasi-official since it is reviewed by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State prior to publication.
“Certainly it does not seem pastoral behavior when a bishop or religious superior who has received a complaint informs the legal authorities of the fact in order to avoid being implicated in a civil process that the victim could undertake,” Ghirlanda wrote.