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	Vatican Outlines History of Policies on Abuse By Stacy Meichtry Wall Street Journal July 16, 2010 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704682604575369623812348014.html?mod=googlenews_wsj The Vatican prefaced its revised policies on disciplining cases of alleged sex abuse with a sweeping "historical introduction" to papal sex-abuse policies, which have been shrouded in secrecy for nearly a century. Thursday's overview didn't clarify how the Vatican handled specific cases, or how many cases there have been. Thousands of priests have been disciplined under rules set in a decree by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Little is known about how cases were handled before then. The Vatican for the first time Thursday traced the history of internal sex-abuse policies, which it said dated back to 1917, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then known as the Holy Office, was first assigned to discipline priests who committed "a certain number of crimes." In 1922, the Holy Office issued Crimen Sollicitationis, Latin for "the crime of solicitation," a document that instructed bishops to set up local church tribunals to prosecute priests who use confession to solicit sex, according to the Vatican overview. The document also instructed bishops to maintain "a strict code of confidentiality to protect all persons concerned from undue publicity" until the tribunal reached a "definitive decision," the Vatican said. The document has been a lightning rod for debate since the Vatican disclosed its existence in the wake of an abuse scandal in Boston in 2002. Victims cited Crimen Sollicitationis as evidence that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith failed to exercise its authority to stop pedophile priests. The document, which was reissued in 1962, also stipulated that sex-abuse cases are covered by the "secret of the Holy Office"—a level of secrecy under church law that calls for excommunication for anyone who violates it. The Vatican's top prosecutor for sex-abuse cases, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, said the secrecy requirement, which is still in force, aimed to protect the dignity of those involved in the cases. It wasn't intended to stop church officials from reporting sex abuse to civil authorities, he said. Alleged victims of sex abuse who have brought lawsuits against the Vatican have cited Crimen Sollicitationis as evidence in civil trials that the Holy See obstructed investigations by civil authorities. "Hundreds of thousands of children across the world have been molested because bishops usually won't tell the truth, call police," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The Vatican's historical overview also played down the use of Crimen Sollicitationis by bishops over the decades. "Crimen Sollicitationis was... never intended to represent the entirety of the policy of the Catholic Church regarding sexual improprieties on the part of the clergy," the Vatican said in the overview. Judging the document according to the current "perspective" on sex abuse is "gravely anachronistic," the Vatican added. The Vatican sought to distance the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from criticism of the Vatican's handling of abuse cases before 2001, noting that "a small number of cases" were reported to the office. It wasn't until 2001, with John Paul II's decree, that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was given clear jurisdiction over sex-abuse cases, the Vatican said. From 2001 forward, bishops were required to report all credible sex-abuse allegations to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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