Church in
Crisis
Pope secretly approves changes to permit quicker trials, dismissal
of priests
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Legal changes approved in secret by the pope Feb. 7 will speed up
trials of priests accused of sexual abuse of children, according to experts in
canon law, and make it easier to remove priests from the clerical state. The
changes thus deliver on a Vatican vow to make the trials, demanded by Rome as a
matter of due process for accused priests, as efficient as possible in response
to the urgency of the American crisis.
The changes allow deacons and lay people to serve on criminal
tribunals in the Catholic church, even as judges. The changes cite Canon 1421,
which stipulates that on a three-judge panel, one judge may be a lay person.
Under rules decreed by the pope in April 2001, those roles had been restricted
to priests.
The changes also drop the requirement that tribunal members must
have a doctorate in canon law, insisting only that they hold the lesser degree
of a licentiate and have worked in tribunals for “a reasonable time.”
Both moves should expand the pool of judges and lawyers and hence make it
easier to form tribunals.
In what experts say is a notable departure from canonical
tradition, the changes also give the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, the Vatican office now charged with adjudicating sex abuse cases, the
power in “clear and grave” situations to dismiss someone from the
priesthood without a trial. That administrative power had heretofore belonged
only to the pope himself.
Most experts say they expect this power to be used only rarely, in
especially notorious cases.
The congregation has also acquired the power to
“sanate,” meaning clean up, procedural irregularities in the acts of
a local tribunal. That means that if a case comes to Rome on appeal on
procedural grounds, the problem can be resolved without remanding the case for
a new trial.
The changes permit a recourse, or appeal, against decisions of the
congregation only to the regular Wednesday assembly of cardinal members of the
congregation. All other appeals are excluded, meaning that the
congregation’s decisions are final.
Canon lawyers told NCR the changes should speed up church
trials of accused priests and make it easier to dismiss a priest from the
clerical state.
“These changes read like they were done by someone who deeply
understands the practical realities of how the system works,” one
canonical expert in Rome said.
The promise of swift action was implicit in the Vatican’s
reaction to the proposed sex abuse norms adopted by the U.S. bishops in Dallas
in June 2002. Those norms envisioned removing priests through a bishop’s
administrative authority. The Vatican insisted instead that accused priests
have the right to a trial, but vowed to make sure that the process moves as
swiftly as possible.
The changes were styled as revisions to the Vatican document
Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, “Defense of the Most Holy
Sacraments,” a papal motu proprio dated April 30, 2001. It decreed
new church law for handling six “grave delicts,” or crimes, including
the sexual abuse of minors. Those norms were secret until NCR published
them in November 2002. (The norms may be found at www.natcath.org/NCR_On
line/documents/CDFnorms.htm)
Though not formally made part of the Feb. 7 changes, sources tell
NCR that the congregation has expressed a preference that judges for sex
abuse tribunals come from outside the diocese where possible, since local
judges may feel pressured to please their bishop.
For the past two weeks, Fr. Charles J. Scicluna has led
behind-closed-doors briefing sessions for some 200 American canon lawyers in
Washington to explain these changes and to review the process to be followed by
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in handling sex abuse cases.
Scicluna, a Maltese priest described by sources as a widely
respected canonist, recently joined the congregation from the Apostolic
Signatura, the Vatican’s highest appeals court.
Scicluna’s workshops were also led by Fr. Thomas Green of the
canon law faculty at The Catholic University of America, an expert in
procedural and penal law, and Oblate Fr. Francis Morrisey of the faculty of
canon law at St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada.
Sources tell NCR that to date, the anticipated flood of
appeals for recourse, the technical canonical term for appeals to the Vatican
for a penalty imposed by a bishop, in the wake of the American sex abuse crisis
has not yet materialized.
After the American charter requiring priests to be permanently
barred from ministry for even one act of sex abuse was adopted in November,
estimates were that some 300 priests had been removed under its terms. Many of
those priests were expected to appeal, generating fears of gridlock and lengthy
delays.
To date, however, Vatican officials say only a small number of
requests for recourse has been received, perhaps as few as 10. Yet that may be
misleading, one official told NCR, because the adjudication of these
cases is just beginning in the United States, and more requests for recourse
may materialize in coming months.
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail
address is jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, March 7,
2003
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