The Pope was following the confidential orders of the Crimen Sollicitationis to hide the facts, support the priest and deny. The Vatican is still doing that.
In reality what Crimen Sollicitationis did was institute a system by which ordinaries were to follow canon law. These were the canon laws that applied at the time:
Canon 904. In accordance with the apostolic constitutions, in particular the constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae of Benedict XIV of 1 June 1741, a penitent must within one month denounce to the local Ordinary or the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office a priest guilty of the crime of solicitation in confession; and a confessor must, under a grave obligation of conscience, inform a penitent of this duty.
Canon 2368 §1. Anyone who has committed the crime of solicitation dealt with in canon 904 is to be suspended from celebrating Mass and hearing sacramental confessions and, if the gravity of the crime calls for it, he is to be declared unfit for hearing them; he is to be deprived of all benefices and ranks, of the right to vote or be voted for, and is to be declared unfit for all of them, and in more serious cases he is to be reduced to the lay state.
Everyone involved in the case was expected to keep the strictest confidence about the case and its facts, “excepting only what may happen to be lawfully published when this process is concluded and put into effect”. Even the flamming liberal John Allen understands this better than the average (and not too bright) anti-Catholic here at FR.
The Pope was following the confidential orders of the Crimen Sollicitationis to hide the facts, support the priest and deny. The Vatican is still doing that.
You must have missed this explanation of what Crimen Sollicitationis really was meant for in this thread: A Response to Christopher Hitchens' The Great Catholic Coverup (full version with references)
The Pope was following the confidential orders of the Crimen Sollicitationis to hide the facts, support the priest and deny. The Vatican is still doing that.
oh please, get a life