Last week’s post examined the absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment. Today’s post focuses on the obligation to report an offence, which also involves safeguarding the sacrament of penance. Canon 1371 §6 states: “A person who neglects to report an offence, when required to do so by a canonical law, is to be punished according to the provision of can. 1336 §§2-4, with the addition of other penalties according to the gravity of the offence.”
This canon was introduced into the 1983 Code following the new Book VI in 2021. The Church introduced the canon following the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the accusations of cover-up, which led Pope Francis to issue the apostolic letter, Vos Estis Lux Mundi (VELM), on reporting sexual abuse perpetrated by Church personnel. He issued it ad experimentum in 2019 and confirmed it in 2023 with slight differences. Article 3 of VELM states:
“§1. Except for when a cleric learns of information during the exercise of ministry in the internal forum, whenever a cleric or a member of an Institute of Consecrated Life or of a Society of Apostolic Life learns, or has well-founded motives to believe, that one of the acts referred to in art. 1 has been committed, that person is obliged to report it promptly to the local Ordinary where the events are said to have occurred or to another Ordinary among those referred to in canons 134 CIC and 984 CCEO. §2. Any person, in particular the lay faithful who serve in offices or exercise ministries in the Church, can submit a report concerning one of the acts referred to in art. 1, using the methods referred to in the preceding article, or by any other appropriate means.”
Therefore, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (the religious) are the first category of those to report an offence. Regarding information clerics learn during the exercise of ministry in the internal forum, the sacramental seal means clerics are incapable of reporting what they hear at the internal forum. They simply do not know. This incapacity differs from being capable but exempt from reporting. (cf. Can. 1550 §2, 2°).
The second category is the laity.
There is also a major difference between the reporting of a case of sexual abuse by clerics and religious and that of the laity, namely, that clerics and religious are obliged to report. In contrast, while not obliged, any other faithful can also submit a report. This difference is essential to interpret canon 1371 §6 because clerics and religious are required by canonical law to report cases of sexual abuse. Since they are obliged, it means that neglecting to report a case of sexual abuse is a delict punishable in canon law.
The obligation to report also concerns any other obligations to report that Church norms impose. The diocesan bishop can legislate that clerics must report certain situations or behaviour that arise. Clerics who fail to report when such situations arise can be punished according to the norms of canon 1371 §6.
The Church regards a false accusation of the crime of solicitation as a very serious matter since, due to the seal of confession, the priest has little, if any, opportunity to defend himself against it. On the other hand, canon 982 states: “A person who confesses to having falsely denounced to ecclesiastical authority a confessor innocent of the crime of solicitation to a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, is not to be absolved unless that person has first formally withdrawn the false denunciation and is prepared to make good whatever harm may have been done.” The inevitable question is whether the confessor is to report.
First, a priest falsely accused of solicitation has little opportunity to defend himself without violating the confessional seal. Second, regarding the confessor listening to the false accusation, some may argue that the confession did not take place since the absolution was not given. Therefore, the confessor can report the case. However, the safeguard of the sacrament and the discussion on the sacramental seal do not divide the various aspects of the administration of the sacrament but consider it integrally. Therefore, the confessor, even though pained that another priest is suffering from false denunciation, cannot report the case without breaching the confessional seal. This is why the confessor must refrain from absolving the penitent whilst admonishing him or her to clear the innocent priest’s name.
Similar to the offence of not reporting is the cover-up of sexual abuse done by certain faithful consisting of actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations, whether administrative or penal, against a cleric or a religious, or a moderator of an international association of the faithful recognised or erected by the Apostolic See (VELM, art. 1,b). These faithful are:
“(a) Cardinals, Patriarchs, Bishops and Legates of the Roman Pontiff; (b) clerics who are, or who have been, the pastoral heads of a particular Church or of an entity assimilated to it, Latin or Oriental, including the Personal Ordinariates, for acts committed durante munere; (c) clerics who are or who were entrusted with the pastoral leadership of a Personal Prelature, for acts committed durante munere; (d) clerics who are or who were leaders of public clerical associations with the faculty of incardination, for acts committed durante munere; e) those who are or who were Supreme Moderators of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life of Pontifical right, as well as of monasteries sui iuris, for acts committed durante munere. (f) lay faithful who are or who were Moderators of international associations of the faithful recognised or erected by the Apostolic See, for acts committed durante munere.” (VELM, art. 6).
Durante munere means while exercising the function.
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
