NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
18 August 2003
The Roman Catholic Church has strongly denied that a Latin document sent to all bishops 40 years ago imposed a secret code for dealing with sexual abuse by priests that stopped victims seeking redress outside the Church. According to the document, priests who spoke out were to be threatened with excommunication.
The Vatican document from 1962, carrying the seal of Pope John XXIII, was discovered by a German priest with close links to the Vatican and leaked to a lawyer in Texas, Daniel Shea, who acts for victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The document is entitled “Instructions on proceeding in case of solicitation”. In Vatican jargon, “solicitation” means an attempt by a priest during confession to procure sexual favours from the person who is confessing.
But the instruction makes clear that it relates not only to what takes place in the confessional box but also outside it. “The crime of solicitation,” it says, takes place either “in the act of sacramental confession”, “or [in a place] other than that [usually] designated for the hearing of confessions or [in a place] chosen for the simulated purpose of hearing a confession … “
