The Star Chamber (in Latin, Camera stellata) was an English court of law which sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Councillors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in civil and criminal matters.
The Star Chamber was originally established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people so powerful that ordinary courts would probably hesitate to convict them of their crimes.
In the course of time, however, it became synonymous with social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the power it wielded.
The term today is generally used pejoratively and is and intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a court's actions and judgments.
Now comes an international group of Bishops, Religious, Priests and lay people, all investigated by Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF), who have written to Pope Francis calling for a reform of its investigation process and specifically an end to its anonymous denunciations.
The 15 who signed the letter include Bishops Patrick Power and William Morris of Australia, Father Charles Curran, Father Brian Darcy as well as Father Roy Bourgeois.
In their letter to the Pope, which was also sent to the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the group accuse the CDF of acting as "investigator, accuser, judge and jury". The process, they contend, cannot offer justice.
"The CDFis outdated and follows the "absolutism of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe" as a model," the signatories said.
They suggest a new set of procedures that would require greater transparency and accountability while imposing a strict time limit on any investigation and direct personal face-to-face communication between the accused and the CDF.
One of the signatories, Australian historian and author Paul Collins, said that the current process makes no presumption of innocence and those accused are never told who has accused them nor who is judging them.
"They don't even know who their defense counsel is. They are usually never given a chance to defend themselves verbally and in person. Letters go unanswered for months or are 'lost'," he criticized.
The signatories highlight that those investigated by the CDF find the process completely draining, isolating and exhausting and this is often linked to CDF imposed exclusion from ministry.
The letter to the former Prefect of the CDF was sent in late February 2016 but so far no acknowledgement or response has been received by the group.
In addition to reforms within the CDF, the group propose an open process conducted by a committee of experts entirely separate from the CDF. This committee would be set up by the Secretariat of the World Synod of Bishops in full consultation with the person being investigated. The committee would make a final recommendation to the next meeting of the Synod and to the Pope.
The aim of these proposed reforms is to avoid some of “the worst aspects” of the present investigation procedures as experienced by those who have dealt with the CDF over the last decades.
Anonymous denunciations would be done away with and instead those accusers would be named. Secret CDF-appointed advocates would no longer remain anonymous but would also be named and their qualifications could then be scrutinized for biases.
Under these proposals, the CDF would be required to deal directly and personally with the person being investigated and there would also be an end to the enforced secrecy which often contributes to the “crippling isolation” of the accused, who are often dealt with third and fourth hand via a network of Bishops and Superiors – who might even have been the primary accuser of the person being investigated in the first place.
The new process would involve the person under investigation and their counsel from the beginning of the process in order to circumvent their work being inaccurately or unfairly interpreted by CDF consulters, or sentences or opinions are taken out of context.
Direct personal face-to-face communication could also help to deal with the “sheer rudeness” and lack of basic politeness and Christian charity on the part of CDF personnel. Strict time limits would prevent processes being dragged out “in an attempt to wear down the resistance of those being investigated”.
The group claim that under the current process “extremely sick or dying people have been investigated and forced to respond to often silly accusations”.
The process, the group warns, must prevent the same people acting as investigators, prosecutors and judges by referring ongoing cases to the Synod of Bishops, thus removing the decision-making from the CDF. Instead the wider community of theologians and the faithful people of God would be involved so that the CDF and its Rome-based advisers would not be the “sole arbiters of correct doctrine and belief”.
While I am no fan of many of those who penned this letter, it appears their concerns (based upon their personal experience with the CDF) are well intentioned and certainly not without merit.
The days of the CDF conducting itself as a “star chamber” should come to an end and those accused of misdeeds or unorthodox teaching be given a fair hearing and judgment in a process that respects their right to defend themselves and their reputations.
Why the CDF and its former Prefect has yet to respond to the letter and the concerns it voices is a puzzlement indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment