References:
1917 – Code of Canon Law
1962 – Crimen sollicitationis
2001 – Epistula de delictis gravioribus – letter sent out (attached to Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela) by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI
In 1962, the Catholic Church issued a document called Crimen Sollicitationis – that’s Latin for “The Crime of Solicitation”. What’s it about? Well, on the face of it, it’s handling a very specific sin: priests making sexual advances during confession (yep, stuff like groping or propositioning someone right there in the confessional).
Now, the document lays down some serious ground rules; bishops (Ordinaries) are bound under oath on pain of excommunication (which, in Catholic theology, is basically Hell on fast-track) to maintain absolute secrecy. Not a peep outside the chain of command. No public scandal. If anyone leaks so much as a whisper, they’re risking their immortal soul. Heavy stuff.
And you might think: okay, well, this is about confessional abuse; it’s a religious issue, so maybe fair enough that it’s handled internally under strict secrecy.
But then we hit Paragraph 71, and here’s where things get… disturbing. It says:
Causae vero pessimi facinoris, de quo in can. 2359, §2 C.I.C., et etiam si de illis cum poenitentibus pertractatum non fuerit, iuxta ea quae supra de causis sollicitationis praescripta sunt pertractari debent.
In plain English? After a bit of homework, we find it means something like:
Oh, and by the way: if we’re talking about cases of child rape or other seriously nasty sexual crimes (even when it’s got nothing to do with confession) you still have to follow all the same secrecy rules we just laid out for solicitation.
To be crystal clear: Canon 2359 §2 (which this paragraph points to) is talking about clerics molesting kids under 16, or doing stuff “against nature” (that’s canon-law-speak for things like sodomy or bestiality).
So here’s the long and short of it: if accusations come up that Father So-and-So raped a child, the bishop is required to keep it completely under wraps and only deal with it inside Church walls. Zero obligation to inform the police or civil authorities. In fact, anyone breaking the wall of secrecy is spiritually nuked – excommunicated.
The confidential 2001 letter reaffirmed this position, making it crystal clear that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had “exclusive competence to judge these cases”.
Anybody want to take any bets as to whether the new Pope will be the first to revoke this secrecy-on-pain-of-Hell clause in the legal framework?