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- Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State.
- Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017
What is this secret?
- Pontifical secret or “papal secrecy”, was the diktat of confidentiality that secured and kept secret all sensitive information on aspects of the governance of the Church.
- It is similar to the “secret”, “classified”, or “confidential” tag that governments or organisations the world over give to certain kinds of information
- The concept of the pontifical secret is akin to the legal concept of attorney-client privilege, or the confidentiality a doctor must maintain with their patient.
- The Pontifical secret implies, it is only the pope — or someone empowered by him — who can dispense from it.
Why does the church require such a code?
- Pontifical secrecy was designed to protect sensitive information such as communications between the Vatican and papal embassies – in a similar fashion to the secrecy applied to diplomatic cables.
- But it was also applied over the years to judicial cases, to protect the privacy of victims and the identities of those accused.
- Pontifical secrecy had been abused by some Church officials to avoid co-operation with the police in abuse cases.
How was the Pontifical secret helping the accused?
- Those bound by the pontifical secret take an oath at the beginning of their service in the Curia or the diplomatic corps, to “in no way, under any pretext, whether of greater good, or of very urgent and very grave reason,” to break the secret.
- The consequence of breaching the pontifical secret was excommunication from the Church, so there was little incentive to be open to state authorities.
- Materials covered by the pontifical secret include diplomatic communications made between the Vatican’s nunciatures around the world, but also apply to a range of other subjects
- Private dossiers and recommendations on priests and bishops being considered for promotion.
- Controversially, the secret also covers penal processes concerning major crimes handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, including cases involving the sexual abuse of minors.
- The rule always got a lot of criticism since the principle of confidentiality has been
- employed to protect paedophiles in the Church,
- silence victims, and
- to prevent law enforcement authorities from investigating crimes by members of clergy.
Child abuse cases in Roman Catholic Church
- The Church has been rocked by thousands of reports of sexual abuse by priests and accusations of cover-ups by senior clergy around the world.
- Many accusations of child sexual abuse (of both boys and girls) and their cover-ups came to light since 1980s.
- From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See examined sex abuse cases involving about 3,000 priests, some of which dated back fifty years.
- The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in 2014, issued a report asserting that the pope and the Roman Catholic Church have not done enough to stop child sexual abuse
The new rule
- On his 83rd birthday Tuesday (December 17), Pope Francis issued new laws that abolished the “pontifical secret” that has been used in cases of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
- Pontifical secret will no longer apply to abuse-related accusations, trials and decisions under the Catholic Church’s canon law
Benefits of lifting the secrecy
- The Church previously shrouded sexual abuse cases in secrecy, in what it said was an effort to protect the privacy of victims and reputations of the accused.
- Any testimony gathered by the Church in relation to cases of sexual violence, the abuse of minors and child pornography will now be made available to state authorities.
- Lifting of the rule in such cases would improve transparency and the ability of the police and other civil legal authorities to request information from the Church.
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