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CNN Live At Daybreak
Vatican Orders Sexual Misconduct Secrecy
Aired August 08, 2003 - 06:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Sexual abuse by Catholic priests once again raises its ugly head. Evidence dating back 40 years shows the Vatican actually ordered church leaders to cover up sexual misconduct.
John Allen, a Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter," is joining us live by phone from Rome.
JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: This sounds quite shocking, but you say it's not as earth shattering as it initially sounds.
ALLEN: No, it is true that this document, called "Crimen Sollicitationis," which comes from 1962, ordered secrecy in canonical investigations -- canon law being the church's own internal code of law for dealing with the misdeeds by priests in an imposed confidentiality on testimony and processes relating to these internal investigations. However, it is absolutely silent on the question of cooperation by victims or bishops or whoever with civil or criminal investigations.
So, it in no way proves some kind of criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the sense in which some of the civil attorneys in the United States initially thought that it might.
COSTELLO: And what it does do, though, is, like, within the church confines, I guess, to keep things secret.
ALLEN: Yes, that's right. I mean, you know, the Code of Canon Law is a legal system analogous to, you know, civil law systems and criminal law systems in the States. And it has a measure of confidentiality, No. 1, because in this case you're dealing with the confessional.
The primary concern of this document was to deal with cases where priests had abused the confessional or were accused of abusing the professional -- or the confessional to proposition someone. And, of course, a priest can't break the seal of the confessional to defend himself in these cases, so secrecy was intended to allow him to put up some kind of a defense.
It was also intended to allow witnesses to speak openly without fear that their testimony would become public. It was intended to, in some cases, allow victims to come forward without unwanted publicity. And so that would be...
COSTELLO: Well, I think what's...
ALLEN: That was the thinking here. But, again, I think the key point is that as a matter of law, there is nothing in this document that would have prevented a victim or a bishop in 1962 or any point after that from going to the police with a charge had they wanted to do that.
COSTELLO: Well, the fact is, is they didn't. I mean, we have ample evidence of that right now. I think whenever the word "secrecy" is mentioned in a Vatican document, it resonates with people.
ALLEN: Yes, I mean, the trust is that what you had, you didn't have a Vatican edict or a Vatican playbook. What you have is a clerical culture in which in far too many cases bishops chose to try to sort of sweep things under the rug and keep struggling members of the clerical club afloat rather than dealing honestly and openly with the problem. And there is no doubt that this document in that broad sense reflects that culture of secrecy in the church.
As a matter of law, however, it does not establish a conspiracy in the sense in which that word is meant under American criminal law.
COSTELLO: All right, John Allen, thanks for joining us live on the phone from Rome this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired August 8, 2003 - 06:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Sexual abuse by Catholic priests once again raises its ugly head. Evidence dating back 40 years shows the Vatican actually ordered church leaders to cover up sexual misconduct.
John Allen, a Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter," is joining us live by phone from Rome.
JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: This sounds quite shocking, but you say it's not as earth shattering as it initially sounds.
ALLEN: No, it is true that this document, called "Crimen Sollicitationis," which comes from 1962, ordered secrecy in canonical investigations -- canon law being the church's own internal code of law for dealing with the misdeeds by priests in an imposed confidentiality on testimony and processes relating to these internal investigations. However, it is absolutely silent on the question of cooperation by victims or bishops or whoever with civil or criminal investigations.
So, it in no way proves some kind of criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the sense in which some of the civil attorneys in the United States initially thought that it might.
COSTELLO: And what it does do, though, is, like, within the church confines, I guess, to keep things secret.
ALLEN: Yes, that's right. I mean, you know, the Code of Canon Law is a legal system analogous to, you know, civil law systems and criminal law systems in the States. And it has a measure of confidentiality, No. 1, because in this case you're dealing with the confessional.
The primary concern of this document was to deal with cases where priests had abused the confessional or were accused of abusing the professional -- or the confessional to proposition someone. And, of course, a priest can't break the seal of the confessional to defend himself in these cases, so secrecy was intended to allow him to put up some kind of a defense.
It was also intended to allow witnesses to speak openly without fear that their testimony would become public. It was intended to, in some cases, allow victims to come forward without unwanted publicity. And so that would be...
COSTELLO: Well, I think what's...
ALLEN: That was the thinking here. But, again, I think the key point is that as a matter of law, there is nothing in this document that would have prevented a victim or a bishop in 1962 or any point after that from going to the police with a charge had they wanted to do that.
COSTELLO: Well, the fact is, is they didn't. I mean, we have ample evidence of that right now. I think whenever the word "secrecy" is mentioned in a Vatican document, it resonates with people.
ALLEN: Yes, I mean, the trust is that what you had, you didn't have a Vatican edict or a Vatican playbook. What you have is a clerical culture in which in far too many cases bishops chose to try to sort of sweep things under the rug and keep struggling members of the clerical club afloat rather than dealing honestly and openly with the problem. And there is no doubt that this document in that broad sense reflects that culture of secrecy in the church.
As a matter of law, however, it does not establish a conspiracy in the sense in which that word is meant under American criminal law.
COSTELLO: All right, John Allen, thanks for joining us live on the phone from Rome this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
