David Ancell / Friday August 08, 2003
For those of you who saw the CBS special that “covered” a 1962 Vatican document (I didn’t see it, so I can’t comment directly.), here is an analysis from Catholic World News that counters it. I do think that, regarding laws such as these, there are some important points:
1. Any secrecy involving the confessional is no doubt held because of the strict confidentiality of the confessional. No matter how many people want transparency, I wouldn’t want anything that happens to me in the confessional to become public matter.
2. From what I understand, the document was superseded by the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
3. Judicial matters such as these must be viewed from the perspective of the time period in which they originated. To do otherwise is arrogance.
Does anyone who saw the special know if CBS consulted orthodox canon lawyers to explain what the document meant? The Catholic World News report suggests that they didn’t. If they didn’t, then it is darn near impossible to attribute any inaccuracies to honest error.
UPDATE: If you can’t get on the CWN site, try the Catholic Exchange link.
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