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December 6, 2018
Denis Nolan
Daly City
Why is no one mentioning the papal actions which were a definite factor in the cover-ups in the abuse cases? The church from its earliest times regarded child sexual abuse as a sin, punishable in the next life. By the fourth century it was also seen as a crime punishable by imprisonment as a minimum. As a result, the church put in canon laws which required any such problems to be turned over to civil authorities. These lasted for over 15 centuries.
That tradition was turned on its head when the 1917 Code of Canon Law was modified by Benedict XV to eliminate seven papal and church council decrees that had required clerics who abused children to be handed over to the civil authorities. Five years later, in 1922, Pope Pius XI (1922-39) issued his instruction, “Crimen Sollicitationis,” requiring all information about child sexual abuse to be subject to the strictest secrecy. He felt that the reputation of the clergy must be protected. That was why so many bishops covered up and protected the pedophile priests. At that point, we had gone from complete openness to complete secrecy.
Until these actions are made public and reversed, there is great doubt as to the efficacy of any other actions by the bishops.
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