British Prelates Angered by BBC Attack on Pope

From Catholic World News:

London, Oct. 02 (CWNews.com) - Church officials in Great Britain have sharply criticized a BBC program on clerical abuse.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has lodged a formal protest against a "Panomara" presentation that suggested Pope Benedict XVI had been involved in covering up evidence of sexual abuse by priests. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham also issued a rebuttal, arguing that the Church has pursued sex-abuse complaints with "absolute thoroughness and scruple."

The Vatican, however, has not commented on the BCC program.

The focus of the BBC presentation was Crimen Sollicitationis, a Vatican document that was promulgated in 1962. The Panorama program described that document as "secret," and claims credit for exposing it, although the full text of Crimen Sollicitationis was published in 2001 and covered extensively by Catholic publications in 2002.

Crimen Sollicitationis covers canonical discipline for priests accused of the sexual misconduct-- including, but not limited to, the sexual abuse of minors. In 2001, Pope John Paul II gave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the exclusive jurisdiction for handling these disciplinary matters. Because the document emphasizes the confidentiality of canonical trials, the BBC report suggested that the Vatican policy, and its enforcement by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, was an effort to conceal evidence of abuse.

Church officials in Great Britain said that BBC had distorted the facts by suggesting that the Vatican was protecting predatory priests. The requirement of secrecy, they pointed out, applied only to canonical proceedings, not to evidence that may have been submitted to secular prosecutors.

“As a public service broadcaster, the BBC should be ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict XVI," wrote Archbishop Nichols in his angry response to the program. The attack on the Pope, he said, was "false and entirely misleading."

Additional coverage:
Fr. Tim Finigan (also here)

Joanna Bogle

A Catholic Londoner

Dr. Ed Peters, Canon Lawyer

Amy Welborn