The crux of last year’s $660 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was the church’s willingness to hand over to the public the internal documents concerning the priest abuse scandal within the Archdiocese. For many of the survivors, the most important aspect of the settlement was the revelation of these important documents. Yet, more than a year later, the documents still have not seen the light of day. In spite of the settlement agreement, the church’s lawyer is fighting to have the documents sealed. According to the Associated Press story today, “The priest personnel files in question contain letters, handwritten notes and reports from doctors and psychologists — and the district attorney has said he will inspect them for evidence of crimes once they are public.
When the Diocese of Orange released tens of thousands of pages of similar files in 2005, they showed that two officials who covered up for molester priests years ago remained in top church positions. Another 800 pages that came out in Wisconsin this year showed the church knew of credible molestation reports against a priest but didn’t remove him.”
The Catholic Church will stop at nothing, spare no expense, and impugn the intentions of survivors in order to keep these Church documents out of the public eye. That’s why the public must have access to them. From the documents that other dioceses have released such as Boston and Manchester, they are a treasure trove of criminal behavior, cover-up, duplicity, and bold face lies in order to protect the all important reputation of the Church. This is not a new modus operandi for the Catholic Church. They’ve been doing this for centuries.
Take as an example the Pontifical Secret. If this secret is deliberately divulged, the Church considers it a grave sin. It’s so important to the instituional church that it’s covered in Canon Law, the official law of the church. While the Pontifical Secret pertains to various matters deemed important by the Pope, issues of clerical sexual abuse may fall into this category. In layman’s terms this is tantamount to the Pope demanding secrecy concerning a civil crime!
Another example of such institutional secrecy concerns the oath cardinals take upon their installation. Here’s the text to which they swear:
[name and surname], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, promise and swear to be faithful henceforth and forever, while I live, to Christ and his Gospel, being constantly obedient to the Holy Roman Apostolic Church, to Blessed Peter in the person of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, and of his canonically elected Successors; to maintain communion with the Catholic Church always, in word and deed; not to reveal to any one what is confided to me in secret, nor to divulge what may bring harm or dishonor to Holy Church; to carry out with great diligence and faithfulness those tasks to which I am called by my service to the Church, in accord with the norms of the law.
So help me Almighty God
I’ve highlighted the relevant parts of the oath for purposes of demonstrating how such an oath can be construed by cardinals to keep secret crimes committed against children. As is obvious, these are strong words from which one can sense the mentality of those in positions of authority regarding their duty to “protect” the church.
Now, that the judge in Los Angeles who was charged with reviewing these church documents has quit, the dissemination of the church documents is in jeopary. The Associated Press story relates, “Under a settlement announced in July 2007, the Los Angeles archdiocese promised to release the priest personnel files to the court, which would then appoint retired state Supreme Court Justice Edward A. Panelli to review each one. Panelli, whose name was written into the settlement agreement as the mediator, would decide which documents could be released and which couldn’t — and none of his rulings could be appealed.
But Panelli suddenly recused himself this summer because he received an unspecified honor from the Roman Catholic church, plaintiff attorney Ray Boucher said. Panelli declined an interview request through his assistant and archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan said he didn’t know why Panelli recused himself.”
This is a battle for which we must fight. It’s a battle about justice and truth. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church is on the wrong side of this one.