Can't you? What is the intention of most law, civil or canonical? It is to direct behavior.
The Church is making the point that a person who experiences this type of harrassment from a priest has a duty to report it. This is the exact opposite of covering up. This is the Church saying that someone who suffers abuse must report it.
Why? To prevent further abuse of others. We do have a Christian responsibility to protect others from harm, and if we know of a priest who is abusing the sacrament, we do nto have the option to bury our heads and pretend it never happened.
Rather we have a canonical as well as ethical duty to report the abuse.
SD
Why
This is the exact opposite of covering up
That depends. It *could* be interpreted as an early warning system for the church to go into damage control mode.
Why? To prevent further abuse of others.
That was my assumption and hope, but when the threat of excommunication is added and applies only to the victim, it just muddies the waters more, not less.
If you find yourself in a situation such as this, such as I did (it is not up to the penitent to determine whether it was an innocent misunderstanding or what; you MUST report certain things even if you don't really think it was real solicitation), I can tell you that it scares the living daylights out of you when you find out *you* are threatened with excommunication until you do what you are supposed to do and hope that the thing doesn't escalate into something really out of control.