AUSTRALIA
La Croix International
November 17, 2018
By Kieran Tapsell
The pontifical secret has been in the news lately because of comments by two of Pope Francis’ conservative critics. In his second statement on the McCarrick matter, Archbishop Viganó admitted to breaching the pontifical secret by revealing some of the allegations against the ex-cardinal.In a television interview, Cardinal Muller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited the pontifical secret when declining to provide details of allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. Muller alleges that Pope Francis ordered him to stop the investigation.Justin Glyn SJ in his article What Canon Law is For (Eureka Street 8 August 2018) writes: ‘Rules like the Pontifical secret, for instance, should be read in such a way as to protect the rights of the innocent and avoid false accusations but should not be used to obstruct justice for victims.’
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