A Vatican dicastery has strongly cautioned against publishing “news” that would harm the reputation of an individual, especially someone who is deceased, when it comes to priests accused of abuse and not found guilty in civil or canonical procedures. Source: NCR Online.
The right to defend oneself and the principles of presumed innocence until proven guilty must be protected and guaranteed, said a letter signed by Dicastery for Legislative Texts prefect Archbishop Filippo Iannone, and secretary Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta.
They also said the Church must uphold the principle of the non-retroactivity of crime, that is, that no person can be criminally responsible under a law or statute for conduct before that law enters into force.
Another “undeniable legal foundation” for forbidding this practice, they wrote, is Pope Francis who wrote: “It is necessary to prevent the lists of the accused being published, even by dioceses, before the preliminary investigation and the definitive condemnation.”
That statement was one of 21 “reflection points” the Pope gave bishops and religious superiors at the 2019 Vatican summit on protecting minors in the Church. The Pope connected that point to “the right to defence: the principle of natural and canon law of presumption of innocence must also be safeguarded until the guilt of the accused is proven”.
Therefore, the archbishop and bishop wrote, “The answer can only be negative with respect to divulging confidential news concerning anyone, especially in the case concerning deceased persons”.
The letter, written in Italian, was dated September 5, 2024, but was posted recently on the dicastery’s website under chiramenti normativi (legislative clarifications) and circa dovere per bona fama defuncti (concerning the duty for the good reputation of the deceased).
The dicastery’s letter was addressed to an unnamed “monsignor” or bishop in response to his letter dated July 3 requesting an interpretation of Canon 220: “No one is permitted to harm illegitimately the good reputation which a person possesses nor to injure the right of any person to protect his or her own privacy,” and how it applies to the deceased.
While not mentioning specifics, the letter clearly referred to the practice of publishing lists of priests “credibly accused” of abuse, including deceased priests, and it criticised the low standard of proof often used to define “credible”.
FUILL STORY
Vatican: Names of alleged abusers cannot be published without proof (By Carol Glatz, CNS via NCR Online)
