Pope Benedict the XVI is here, our Campus has been scrubbed from top to bottom, and the faithful are lining up in droves to get tickets to see the Holy Father pray the Rosary and say mass. Not being a Roman Catholic, I don’t find myself all that excited, but I respect the religious choices of many of my classmates and appreciate their excitement at his arrival.
Since this is a blog about the law, I wanted to make the following observation. In 2001, The Pope (then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. At that time, he issued a letter which asserted the Church’s right to investigate sex abuse allegations, and to keep the findings of those investigations secret for 10 years after the minor turned 18. In essence, he asserted that ecclesiastical authority supersedes the right of civil authorities to investigate criminal sexual conduct of priests with minors. While I don’t want to speculate on motivations, I will point out that this course of action does hamper prosecution of these crimes by concealing their discovery until after the statute of limitations has expired in almost every state. Continue reading ‘Civil Law and Religious Authority’
