Could you please post the relevant text from this Crimen Sollicitationis in order to gauge the accuracy of what you claim?
I don't mean to sound as if I'm challenging you. I just want to nip an other endless round of recriminations in the bud. If it's there in black and white, then it's there. If it's not, it's not.
13. The oath of keeping the secret must be given in these cases also by the accusers or these denouncing [the priest] and the witnesses.
Ratzinger's 2001 letter to all the bishops clearly spelling out that the church's supposed jurisdiction and oath of secrecy run for 10 years beyond the victim's 18th birthday, regardless of the age of the victim when he was sexually molested by a priest...
...It must be noted that the criminal action on delicts reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is extinguished by a prescription of 10 years.(11) The prescription runs according to the universal and common law;(12) however, in the delict perpetrated with a minor by a cleric, the prescription begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age...
The "prescription" is silence by all involved.
And finally, the dastardly Guardian article that dared to say it like it is...and was...
It orders that 'preliminary investigations' into any claims of abuse should be sent to Ratzinger's office, which has the option of referring them back to private tribunals in which the 'functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests'. 'Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret,' Ratzinger's letter concludes. Breaching the pontifical secret at any time while the 10-year jurisdiction order is operating carries penalties, including the threat of excommunication......The letter states that the church's jurisdiction 'begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age' and lasts for 10 years.