GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
Catholic Vote [Madison, WI]
August 4, 2025
By Felix Miller
The Chicago Sun-Times has published an article arguing that a Vatican document released in February prohibiting dioceses from publicly listing the names of priests credibly accused of abuse but not yet been found guilty or innocent could lead to “a new era of secrecy over child sex abuse.”
The Aug. 1 article by Robert Herguth focuses on the status of such lists in dioceses in Illinois and nearby states.
“As part of their stated commitment to transparency and healing over the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, all six Catholic dioceses in Illinois post public listings online that name clergy members deemed to have been credibly accused of molesting children,” the Sun-Times reported.
The Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, however, has no intention of creating a similar listing, according to the Sun-Times, because of because of the Vatican document, which was issued to bishops in September 2024. The document says such lists fail to uphold the presumption of innocence.
The Diocese of Dodge City, Kansas, has removed a public list it had previously posted, according to the Sun-Times. The newspaper reported that Bishop John Brungardt said such lists are “contrary to natural law and canon law, specifically against the presumption of innocence, the right to defense and the right to a good name,” according to the outlet.
The Vatican document in question is a letter from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. No official English translation exists, but Michael Mazza, a canon lawyer, has posted an unofficial English translation he prepared.
According to Mazza, the letter says that canon law “establishes a general principle prohibiting slander and defamation.” It continues that, in certain cases, “injury to a good reputation may be legitimate, for example to avoid any danger or threat to persons or the community.” However, such damage should not be inflicted on the reputation of those who have not been proven guilty of any crime.
Mazza wrote that the letter stated that two principles must always be maintained: the presumed innocence of the accused and the non-retroactivity of crime — a legal principle that a person cannot be punished for an action that was legal when it occurred but has since been made illegal.
“Such principles, which are structural in scope, cannot reasonably be overridden by a generic ‘right to information’ that puts into the public domain any kind of news, however ‘credibly,’ to the concrete detriment and existential harm of those who are personally involved, all the more so if it is inaccurate, or even unfounded or false, or completely useless such as that concerning deceased persons,” the letter says, according to Mazza
The letter also expresses hesitation about how one adjudicates which accusations are credible, he wrote
“Moreover, the determination of whether an allegation is ‘well-founded’ often rests on a non-canonical foundation and demands a relatively low standard of proof,” the letter adds, “resulting in the publication of the name of a person merely accused, but of an unproven accusation, without the benefit of any exercise of the right to defense.”.