In 1984, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy wrote to an
American bishop, instructing him not to hand over personnel files in the
case of a priest who had been accused of misconduct.
The letter is being cited as new evidence that the Vatican had a policy
of encouraging bishops to withhold evidence of priestly misconduct.
In
January, the release of a 1997 letter to Irish bishops from the
apostolic nuncio in Dublin prompted similar outcries.
The letter, from Cardinal Silvio Oddi to Bishop Manuel Moreno of Tucson,
Arizona, has been made public on the BishopAccountability web site.
The
correspondence involved the case of a Tucson priest whose name has been
redacted from the correspondence because, BishopAccountability
explains, his misconduct involved consensual activity with a female
adult (as well as other misbehavior) rather than abuse of a child.
In response to Bishop Moreno’s question whether the diocese should turn
over the priest’s personnel files, Cardinal Oddi replies that “under no
condition whatever ought the after-mentioned files be surrendered to any
lawyer or judge whatsoever.”
After giving that unequivocal instruction, Cardinal Oddi suggested that
the Tucson diocese should anticipate demands for release of the files,
and should “begin preparing whatever resistance to this request may be
necessary.”
The cardinal expresses confidence that American courts would
uphold the Church’s position.
While the message from Cardinal Oddi is unmistakably clear, the letter
does not indicate whether or not the priest in question could face
criminal charges, nor is there any indication that he would be a threat
to public safety.
Thus it is difficult to judge, from the letter alone,
whether Cardinal Oddi was justified in thinking that the US legal system
would have favored the bishop in this case.
However, the newly disclosed letter adds to the mounting evidence that
many Vatican officials were adamant in their belief that bishops should
not allow such disclosure.
“The files of a bishop concerning his priests
are altogether private; their forced acquisition by civil authority
would be an intolerable attack upon the free exercise of religion in the
United States,” Cardinal Oddi explains.
During the sex-abuse scandal that reached its zenith in the US about 18
years later, dozens of American bishops cited the same argument of
confidentiality that Cardinal Oddi raised in his letter, resisting
demands to open their personnel files.
However, when the courts ordered
release of those files, the US bishops complied.
The two prelates involved in the 1984 letter are now deceased.
Cardinal
Silvio Oddi, who was prefect of the Congregation for Clergy from 1979 to
1984, died in 2001 at the age of 90.
Bishop Manuel Moreno, who resigned
his post in Tucson in 2003 at the age of 72, died in 2006.