New Vatican Policy Meant to Protect Children

By Mary Beth Bonacci
HERALD Columnist
(From the issue of 1/31/02)

I was a journalism major once. Like most freshman-year majors, it didn’t last long. I only took a couple of classes. But I’m beginning to think that I took a couple of classes more than most of the so-called "journalists" I see today.

Take, for instance, a news clip I recently saw on NBC News. It was a brief item about the Vatican’s recent policy change regarding priests accused of pedophilia. I don’t remember the anchor’s exact words, but the entire piece went something like this: "The Vatican today announced that priests accused of pedophilia will be tried in secret Church trials. Critics of the plan say that the new policy protects priests, but not children."

Really? So that’s what critics say? What do supporters say? What was the Vatican’s reasoning for implementing this policy? What does the Vatican say about it? Was there any attempt to find out?

The bias was so blatant, even I was shocked. There was clearly no interest in presenting a balanced story. I imagined all of the millions of Catholics watching the news that night, thinking "Gee, that’s scary. Apparently I belong to a weird cult that is trying to cover up horrible crimes against children."

So, given that we all know what the "critics" say, I thought I’d take this opportunity to do what NBC News failed to do, and clarify what the Vatican says about the new policy.

It wasn’t difficult to find out, really. I just logged onto www.originsonline.com, and for $2.95 I downloaded the whole story. You can do the same if you’d like.

First of all, I learned that this is not exactly late-breaking news. The world’s bishops learned of the upcoming change last summer in a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith describing the content of the new norms. That letter became public in December, when Catholic News Service (CNS) obtained a copy and wrote a story on it. Then, recently, Pope John Paul II made the change official, releasing a brief apostolic letter titled "Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela" ("Protection of the Holiness of the Sacraments"). That’s why the press is just picking up the story now.

The new norms are not just about clerical sexual abuse. They give guidelines for handling several serious matters. Sacramental abuses such as consecration of the Host for sacrilegious purposes and throwing away consecrated Hosts are also dealt with under the new norms, as well as violating the seal of the confessional, absolving someone of sexual sin when the priest himself participated in that sin, and "(s)olicitation in the act, on the occasion or under the pretext of confession, to sin against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue, if it is directed to sin with the confessor himself." (In English, "hitting on the penitent.")

These describe some pretty serious abuses of the priestly office. I don’t believe they happen often, but the Church needs strong guidelines in place for when they do occur.

The secular press, of course, has completely ignored these other offenses covered under the new norms, and focuses exclusively on the issue of clerical sexual abuse. Not surprising, I suppose. Pedophilia sells papers. And implying that the Church is trying to cover up cases of pedophilia sells even more papers.

But it’s just not true. These norms were created not to sweep serious cases under the rug, but rather to insure that they were dealt with, swiftly and fairly.

The norms take several steps to strengthen the Church’s ability to successfully prosecute priestly offenses. First of all, they require local bishops to report to the congregation probable cases of sexual abuse by clergy against minors. Bishops will not be able to ignore these cases, or to simply reassign the offending priests. The cases must be turned over to Rome. At that point the Vatican will decide whether that diocese is prepared to handle the case under the new rules, or whether the case should be dealt with in Rome. The definition of an adult was changed from age 16, as was traditional in Church law, to age 18. Since children often repress memories of sexual abuse, the guidelines also extend the statute of limitations for Church prosecution to 10 years. In addition, the "clock doesn’t start ticking" on the statute of limitations until the alleged victim has turned 18.

Finally (and most importantly) the press has given the impression that the Church is trying to usurp civil courts in this matter, trying cases in Church courts instead of allowing priests to face civil prosecution.

Again, this is not true. The Vatican has repeatedly emphasized that these norms are not a replacement for criminal prosecution. Priests who break the law – especially pedophiles – are to be turned over to the proper civil jurisdiction to face charges. These Church norms are in addition to those state proceedings, not a replacement. They are intended to determine if and how the Church will discipline a suspected pedophile, not to dictate the state’s punishment for those crimes.

I think it’s important to conclude by saying these new norms were not put into place because the Catholic Church’s problems with pedophilia are any worse than any other denomination or organization. The sad truth is that any position that deals closely with children is attractive to those who wish to misuse children for their own purposes. Protestant denominations and secular organizations deal with just as many — if not more — incidents of child sexual abuse. The Catholic Church’s problems with pedophilia have certainly received more attention from the media, which makes the scope of the problem seem more serious than it is.

The norms, I believe, are in place for one simple reason: even one case of pedophilia is one case too many. Priests are entrusted with the innocence of children. A vast, vast majority of priests take that charge seriously, and act as wonderful role models for Catholic kids. But for the few who fail, Christ’s message is clear. They’d be better off with millstones around their necks. The new norms are the Vatican’s millstone.

Bonacci is a frequent lecturer on chastity.

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