The Problem with Lifting the Pontifical Secret

Just the other day (December 17, 2019) Pope Francis announced that he was getting rid of “The Pontifical Secret.” It is a policy that he and the Vatican have had in place for a hundred years intended to keep child sex abuse by clergy secret. The grim reality is that this will change nothing.

Today, Pope Francis has thousands and thousands of names of credibly accused perpetrators that only he and the Vatican know about. Until he releases those names and makes them public, the removal of a rule like this is meaningless. The time for him to take real action to protect kids is now.

Today—with one phone call, one email, one letter—he could release thousands of names of child sex offenders so that kids across the world could be safer.