Cardinal Egan in New York has decided that he will keep secret the results of investigations into 13 suspended priests. Prosecutors aren’t charging them, so what now? A review board will make a recommendation and Egan will decide whether to suspend them indefinitely or return them to ministry.
Why should it be up to the priests to declare themselves innocent? Don’t parishioners have the right to expect to hear from the authority first whether a priest is cleared? Why should they first have to hear from someone else?
And what’s the point of secrecy if the archdiocese is going to confirm anyway? What does the archdioces gain?
I think the value of transparency outweighs the value of secrecy in this case.
The Dallas charter is the minimum that should be done. How does this re-build the people’s trust? How does it help the alleged victims of those priests to not know the outcome? They are left in a limbo of not knowing, especially if the accused priest chooses not to talk about his case.
Why should the rights of the accused priest be paramount here? Shouldn’t the rights of the alleged victim be respected as well?
I agree that the cases should be handled more expiditiously, but that’s a separate issue.