| Chicago (August 7, 2003)
This is a document which shows how seriously the Catholic Church
addresses the sinful misuse of the confessional by a priest, should
he solicit a penitent for sexual purposes either during confession
or immediately before or after. It does not presuppose any sexual
act as such, only the invitation to sin; but it also covers cases
where a sinful act takes place as a result of solicitation in the
confessional.
Basically, three points are made:
1. If a priest uses the confessional to solicit sex, the bishop,
no matter how he learns of this crime, cannot ignore it or handle
it personally. The bishop has no choice but to bring the priest
to an ecclesiastical trial. If the priest belongs to a religious
order, his superiors may not transfer him until the accusation is
settled.
2. The person solicited in the confessional has no choice to remain
silent or to hide the priest’s sin. He or she, or anyone else
who knows of this crime, must accuse the priest and must do so within
30 days of the solicitation.
3. During the period of investigation and during the trial itself,
the normal rules of legal confidentiality obtain, much as they do
in a grand jury hearing in civil law.
Because solicitation is such a serious abuse of priestly ministry,
most of the document carefully outlines procedures for the inquiry
and the trial. When I was studying the sacrament of penance as a
seminarian, the 1962 document was mentioned and explained to us.
It brought home to me how seriously the Church condemns and punishes
priests who use their ministry as a cover for sin. The 1983 Code
of Canon Law addresses the crime of solicitation with somewhat different
provisions.
It is hard to understand how anyone could construe this severely
punitive document as a “blueprint for deception” by
Pope John XXIII.
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