Mauro Visigalli: Priests Deserve Basic Justice, Too

By Mauro Visigalli
Providence Journal
August 26, 2016

http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/20160826/mauro-visigalli-priests-deserve-basic-justice-too

I am an Italian "avvocato rotale." I usually work in the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church where certain canonical crimes arrive for consideration from all over the world. For this reason, I often look at American newspapers online, sometimes printing out their pages for my folders.

I was doing that the other day, searching for news about a priest who entrusted his case to me, when I found in The Providence Journal an article about a different priest, unknown to me ("Priest prohibited from serving," news, July 1). His story made me want to share some thoughts, based on my professional experience.

What amazes me is that in a country like yours, where the rights of the accused are considered so important, that rights do not seem to count when a priest is accused of a sexual crime. Such is the paradox of a 95-year-old priest who is prohibited from serving based on "credible" facts of an incident that happened 60 years before.

I would simply ask: How could someone defend himself against such old charges? And is the "presumption of innocence" a mere option, or has it been replaced in these cases with a "presumption of guilt?" I can find this same expression — "credibly alleged" — on the websites of many American dioceses, with attached blacklists of priests smeared forever after having dedicated their whole life to the church (sometimes dead priests, too). Some websites include a red button and phone numbers with the list, so that everyone can easily send in his or her accusation and everyone can infer, however wrongly, that such crimes are absolutely normal in the church!

Do you know how many of those "credible accusations" started with a simple anonymous letter? Do you know how often the letter was sent from someone who was in a position to gain from the denunciation? Do you know how many priests weren't found guilty but are still suspended because their bishop is frightened about public opinion? Do you know how long the accused priests, immediately suspended from their ministries with a simple letter from their bishop, live under the double pressure of a civil and a canonical tribunal?