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Guilty until proved innocent

The Cumberlege Commission's review of the [Roman Catholic] Church's child-protection policy is about to be published, writes Austen Ivereigh. While treatment of the abused has improved, disturbing evidence has emerged that priests who have been accused and not charged are left in limbo, suspicion still hanging over them.

Ever since Caiaphas observed that the destruction of an innocent man was justified to save a nation, the law of Christian countries has upheld the presumption of innocence and the need for hard evidence to convict. In the Church's legal tradition, this is known as favor rei: the accused enjoys the benefit of the law. Due process and individual rights, Pope John Paul II said in 1979, should never be sacrificed for the sake of the social order.

Yet this is precisely what has happened through the implementation of the UK Catholic Church's child-protection regime, according to canon lawyers giving evidence to a commission set up to review it.

Unlike the 2002 US norms which, after revisions, received the recognitio from Rome, the UK's child-protection policy has never been Vatican-stamped. A 2004 report by British canonists spelt out the need for restoration of due process and the rights of the accused in order to bring the policies in line with canon law, but that report was ignored.

There is a pattern here ...

Full story at The Tablet.