Pontifical secret
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In Catholicism, the pontifical secret is a code of confidentiality applied to some confidential knowledge within the Church. Breaching the pontifical secret carries penalties including the threat of excommunication. In 1974 the Vatican issued Secreta continere, which outlines ten areas in which pontifical secrecy can apply. They range from appointments of bishops to Vatican investigations of theologians and other church personnel to the proceedings at papal conclaves [1].
The Vatican document, Crimen sollicitationis authored by Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, then head of the Supreme and Holy Congregation of the Holy Office (which later became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), was issued in 1962, covered by the Pontifical secret, with instructions on the first page of the 39-page document directing that it be stored uncatalogued in the secret archives of each diocese. The secret document, an instruction manual for “all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and other diocesan ordinaries”, dealt with the reform of an abuse, establishing a canonical procedure for cases in which priests were accused of abusing the sacrament of penance to sexually proposition penitents, thus its title "Crime of Solicitation."
On May 18, 2001, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (at that time prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) sent a Latin language letter to all Catholic Bishops reminding them of the strict penalties facing those who revealed confidential details concerning enquiries into allegations against priests of certain grave ecclesiastical crimes, including sexual abuse, reserved to the jurisdiction of the CDF. Some lawyers claim that this was an attempt to obstruct justice. However, the letter did not discourage victims from reporting the abuse itself to the police, rather the secrecy related to the internal investigation. When the cardinal was made pope as Benedict XVI in April, 2005, some journalists discovered this letter, which was widely reported on as a recently-obtained "confidential" document. It had, in fact, been available on the Vatican website since 2003.
When plaintiffs in Houston, Texas began a suit arguing obstruction of justice, in April 2005, the Archbishop of Houston, Joseph Fiorenza, issued a statement elucidating “pontifical secret”: “These matters are confidential only to the procedures within the Church, but do not preclude in any way for these matters to be brought to civil authorities for proper legal adjudication. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People of June, 2002, approved by the Vatican, requires that credible allegations of sexual abuse of children be reported to legal authorities.” [2]
See also: Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal
