Cover
story Curia official blasts U.S. media coverage
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
In the most explosive comments to date on the sex abuse crisis by
a senior aide to Pope John Paul II, the Vaticans top canon lawyer has
called massive church payouts for clerical misconduct unwarranted,
and criticized a climate of exaggeration, financial exploitation and
nervousness in the United States.
Archbishop Julián Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council
for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, also complained of a
tenacious, scandalistic style in the press. Certain media outlets,
he suggested, seek to sully the image of the church and the Catholic
priesthood, and to weaken the moral credibility of the magisterium.
Herranz referred to pedophilia as a concrete form of
homosexuality, taking sides in a growing debate about the relationship
between homosexuality and clerical sexual misconduct.
In speaking so bluntly, Herranz aired views that are widely held
within the Vatican but rarely voiced publicly.
Herranz also criticized proposals to defrock an abuser priest
outside the procedures specified in canon law, although Vatican sources told
NCR that this should not be taken as a signal of disapproval for the two
special processes recommended by American participants in a recent
Vatican summit.
Herranz, 72, the lone Opus Dei member to head a Vatican office,
was one of seven curial officials who participated in the April 23-24 summit
with the American cardinals. His latest comments came at the Catholic
University in Milan April 29, where he lectured on canon law in the life of the
church.
In that speech, Herranz devoted nine paragraphs to the American
situation. He emphasized that he was speaking personally and did not intend to
pass judgment on the summit.
Calling the American crisis a sad situation, Herranz
said, It has created an unjust climate of suspicion and ambivalence
toward priests, on account of a tenacious, scandalistic style, which is not
merely informative, in which certain media give voice to any
charges whatsoever.
Two paragraphs later, Herranz provided the clearest evidence to
date that for many policy-makers in the Vatican, homosexuality is among the
root causes of clerical pedophilia.
Observing that canon law provides for dismissal from the clerical
state for priests who commit certain offenses, Herranz added, and not
solely that concrete form of homosexuality that is pedophilia. He cited
canon 1395 of the Code of Canon Law, which refers to sins against the
sixth commandment by priests.
Herranz also underscored the need to protect the due process
rights of all parties to an accusation of misconduct, including the accused
priest. He referred both to canon law and to a recent papal document that
centralized juridical responsibility for six offenses, including sexual abuse
of a minor, in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
To ignore these processes, Herranz said, or
other penal or disciplinary measures that must be taken in order to prohibit or
limit the pastoral activity of those priests about whom there are serious
indications of behaviors of this sort, would denote a lack of the most
fundamental sense of justice.
While recognizing the competence of civil authorities, Herranz
expressed strong reservations about the application to the Catholic church of
two hallmarks of American civil law -- an obligation to report misconduct and
monetary damages for institutional negligence.
Given the emotional wave of public clamor, Herranz
said, some envision an obligation on the part of ecclesiastical authority
to denounce to civil judges all the cases that come to their attention, as well
an obligation to communicate to judges all the documentation from
ecclesiastical archives.
Herranz rejected the idea.
The rapport of trust and the secrecy of the office inherent
to the relationship between the bishop and his priest collaborators, and
between priests and the faithful, must be respected, he said.
Herranz also expressed skepticism about financial
compensation.
The dominant jurisprudence in the United States [assumes] an
almost unlimited juridical responsibility of the church for any wrongful
behavior of its ministers, he said. But even in the case of clergy,
there are types of behavior that are not controllable [by church authority],
because they do not regard the exercise of ministry, but enter into the sphere
of their private life and their exclusively personal responsibility.
Herranz insisted that the crisis must not taint the
priesthood.
We must oppose efforts to impede the necessary pastoral work
of priests with young children and adolescents, or to discourage vocations or
entrance into seminaries that have been generically and unjustly defamed,
he said.
Finally, Herranz said that exceptional cases must not
call into question the touchstones of the doctrine and discipline of the
church concerning the priesthood.
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail
address is jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 17,
2002
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