Editor’s Note: The problem with these lists is that there was no juridical standard for “credibly” accused. All accusations were presumed “credible”, and thus any priest’s reputation could be severely damaged by false accusations. Thus priests were subject to possible extortion by threats to include their names, and Dioceses became legally responsible to pay out claims to individuals who pretended to be victims.
However, I do not agree that lists should not be published. The correct solution here was to change the term “credibly” and insist on the Gospel rule, of “two or three witnesses” and an investigation. Only after which, a name be added to the list of the accused, when the accused, if alive, is brought before a civil tribunal, or when the statute of limitations in the civil court has expired, an exactly similar kind of court.
Properly speaking, the accuser should be required to recount in detail what happened, where it happened, who is the perpetrator etc.. Then experts in forensics should examine the claims made with the actual historical evidence still available. An accusation is only credible if there is forensic evidence which corroborate the claim in its details.
But certainly, if a priest has been found guilty in a civil court or canonical court, his name should be published.
As for canonical courts, they are in total disarray and lack persons competent in the law and in moral integrity to hand down just sentences. But there is nothing preventing the Bishops of establishing a procedure, where laity expert in the civil jurisprudence of their own country, form an investigatory commission and proceed as if the statute of limitations in the civil court did not exist, so as to render a judgement of facts in the case, regarding each accused, using the highest standards of modern forensic and judicial expertise; and then pass that finding on to an ecclesiastical court, as expert testimony.
Simply to stop publishing lists, however, is not a solution which is helpful to all cases, just neither is publishing lists of “credibly” accused.
And while it is true that there is a good reason for statutes of limitations, since all human forms of judicial procedure are limited in their ability to discern the truth after the passing of great lengths of time, in those cases in which modern forensic science can reliably be used and civil codes simply lack a statute of limitation which is adequate for sexual abuse, something should be done, because after all, the Church’s first concern should be in the safety of families and children. A priest does not have the right to serve, it is a privilege, just as any man who wants to be a priest, does not have the right to become or remain one.
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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
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