Editor’s Note: It has been nearly a month since the vice-president of the Italian Senatorial Commission looking into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi concluded that Pope John Paul II was personally involved in the case.

And presto-magico, the Vatican Commission for the Interpretation of Legal Texts has published a letter, directed to an anonymous Bishop in the U.S.A. which explicitly says that there should not be published the names of credibly accused sexual abusers, ESPECIALLY if they are already dead, since the dead deserve the rights to their good name and cannot defend themselves. (see article above).

I say non-binding, because the opinion has not been expressed in a juridical act, but only in a consultory act to a private individual.

Aside from the fact that The Pillar gets the name of one of the Vatican Officials wrong: Mons. Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, is the correct name, the instruction which is merely a non biding opinion, regards two separate things: the living and the dead.

As as student of history, however, I find it quite shocking that the Vatican is attempting to cleanse the historical record, by affirming the dead should not have their names published on lists of potential criminals, since unlike the living, the dead no longer have need of having their names protected, by lists published in this world, when they are in the next.

And while I have the greatest respect for Monsignor Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru — as I keep his canon law commentary on my desk at all times — I think the Vatican document, of which he is the co-author, fails to take into account, that in the midst of great public crises, caused by secret crimes and associations, even the right to a good name in this life should cede to public interest, because parents have the right to protect their children, and their pastors have the grave and solemn duty to inform them even of potential threats of secret crimes and associations.

This is why the publication of lists of “credibly” accused is not only useful but just, if the term “credibly” is understood and observed in the strictest sense of the term.

Like capital punishment, that some innocents are put to death is not the fault of the penalty being established, but of the humans in charge of the process. Abolishing Capital Punishment is not the solution, imposing the liability of capital punishment upon all those who misused the process is: including prosecutors and judges.

Likewise, once a “credible accusation” is proven no longer worthy of trust, those publishing the accusation should repair the good names of those accused by a similar or even more noteworthy press release or publication. That too is justice.