Vatican Embassy

Exclusive: Accused Vatican diplomat wrote 2003 dissertation on sex abuse church laws

A Vatican priest and diplomat under suspicion for violating US child pornography laws wrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church laws addressing how the Holy See deals with clerics accused of molesting children.

Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, recalled by the Vatican last week, wrote The criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy in the canonical laws of 1917 and 1983: historical-juridical study to complete his studies in Canon Law. I took screenshots, in case the link “disappears.”

He finished his degree in 2004 and entered the diplomatic service soon after.

For people not up-to-speed on the importance of this dissertation topic, here’s a primer:

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV wanted to consolidate his problem-solving. Some of his biggest problems had to do with child sexual abuse. He put the jurisdiction of these crimes, or “delicts,” under its own tribunal.

The laws on dealing with the “delicts against the Sixth Commandment,” as they were called (that’s adultery, for those of us who had to look it up), were streamlined into a single code in 1917 and then again in 1983.

Both the Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops are nice enough to explain the whole thing. I recommend reading the USCCB version.

What does this mean?

What does this mean? It means a million things.

But here’s the worst (besides all of Francis’s broken promises about cooperating with civil authorities):

It means that—quite possibly—a diplomat tasked with handling these cases may instead be a culprit.

12 thoughts on “Exclusive: Accused Vatican diplomat wrote 2003 dissertation on sex abuse church laws

  1. Every day there is a new public report about how another Catholic Bishop, Cardinal, priest and/or one their attorneys is caught violating another law.

    Now we learn that a Vatican priest and diplomat, who wrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church law addressing how the Holy See deals with accused clerics, is under suspicion for violating US child pornography laws. How many more crimes will be committed by members of the clergy before the U.S. federal government revokes the Catholic Church’s tax exempt status and/or files a criminal RICO indictment?

    Thank you Joelle and to all of the survivors of abuse who continue seeking truths and the fair administration of justice.

  2. “.. the criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy?” What does this mean….criminal protection?

    It appears that the most sexually disturbed a man is, the more he is encouraged into the study of canon law..and then is honored by promotions into the clergy sex abuse arena. Cardinal William Levada’s promotion of canon lawyer sex abuser Rev. Gregory Ingels comes to mind. Levada placed Ingels in charge of sex abuse policies for the US Church and admitted under oath he knew Ingels was a pedophile when he made him his chancellor and promoted him. And a Franciscan named Steven Kain, a pedophile, he also became a canon lawyer.

    Is there any research about how often these diplomat/canon lawyer pedophiles influence church policy to protect themselves and their ilk? All the while transubstantiating here and there, their evil fueled by religious ritual.

    Without SNAP and Bishopaccountability.org none of this would be known still.

    What became of all the sanctifying grace that would prevent transubstantiating priests from raping kids? And all that sanctifying grace from transubstantiating bishops who, when they weren’t covering up their own sexual malfeasance, were obeying the pontifical secret and destroying the bodies and souls of kids?

    AW

    1. Anyone who begins to connect the dots will be lead to the logical conclusion that the leadership class (bishops, priest, cardinals) of the Roman Catholic church has been infiltrated by sexual molesters of all kinds. It’s so bad that even the ‘good’ priests and bishops have been rendered powerless to stop them or remove them. After I became a priest-I was rapidly drummed out for speaking out and coming forward to report that I had been stalked and abused in a catholic high school. Forget about the church reforming itself or the church people doing anything about it. The sexual molesters go for the leadership positions in every diocese and especially the Vatican. I would have never believed this if I had not studied this from the inside for the last 20 years. The ordinary catholic will never be able to believe this because it literally ‘blows their mind.’ Most do not want to know and most cannot handle the truth. So the normal psychological defense mechanism is denial and refusal to believe. The sexual molesters and perverts have usurped control of this global organization of a billion people and they are not leaving without a fight. Until people come to realize this fundamental truth-nothing will change.

    2. What I was told by my former spiritual director was that the “grace” comes down from heaven through the altar as the priest is performing the “Transubstantiation” for the cracker & out into the congregation…with that being said & believed, maybe god is a pedophile too? (As Above So Below)
      not just anybody can become (Ontologically Different 🙂

  3. Take it from a seminary graduate who couldn’t get out of there fast enough: those who were most vociferous in defending mandated celibacy were amongst the most dysfunctional in their personal lives – and that includes in particular some of the Ratzinger promoted US Bishops.

  4. I would have had to look up which one is number 6, too. Thanks for the help. Now explain how that falls under adultery, since unmarried abusers exist.

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