Law Students

Civil Law and Religious Authority

By Dr. Bombay

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.

I have no reason to doubt the Pope?s faith. So I take him at his word that he is ?deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future.? Further, I have no reason to doubt that he has a fervent belief in the power of prayer to ameliorate the suffering of victims of sexual abuse, and to change the hearts of those who committed these crimes. It is, after all, the position one would expect from ?God?s Vicar on Earth.?

My disdain in this situation, therefore, is for the civil authorities who have abrogated their responsibilities to the citizenry of the United States by not prosecuting this to the fullest extent of the law. It is one of our most deeply held foundational beliefs in the United States that all other authority is subordinate to the civil authority. We are obviously not so in thrall to religious dictates that a massive contingent of Texas state troopers removed 416 children from a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch last week on suspicion of physical and sexual abuse. Where is the comparable response when thousands have been abused by priests in the Catholic Church? Is plaintiff?s litigation our only methodology of enforcing justice? Is sapping the financial wherewithal of the Catholic Church to engage in its many good works a satisfying response?

Thomas Jefferson once noted that “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.” To the extent that we are able to provide no response to the abuse of our citizens when they happen behind a cassock, than I think we have proved Mr. Jefferson correct.

ShareThis

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).