This book of Richardson's doctoral thesis sets out to answer questions posed to him at the Dublin Metropolitan Tribunal (where he is the Promoter of Justice) by a Catholic cleric: ‘Do I have a right to a trial if I am accused? Am I not presumed innocent until proven guilty?’ The 1983 Code of the Western Latin Church (CIC), Canon 1342, states that a judicial procedure is the normal way to impose a legal penalty; Canon 1400 makes clear the object of a judicial trial. Hence the answer to the questions would presume enacting of these canons as regards a cleric accused of offending against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue with a minor under the age of 18. Disappointingly, this is not the case, particularly for those who have just been ousted from their parishes and/or not been subject to civil proceedings. In this volume the author investigates how that situation has come about.

The analysis is historical and includes a look at the ancient categories of accusations, denunciations and inquisitions, as well as two historic modes of canonical investigation: the pure inquisitorial procedure and the mixed public accusatorial procedure. The publication of Crimen sollicitationis in 1922 and again in 1962, although secret and not promulgated in the standard fashion, highlighted the differences between these procedures. In Part I, Richardson examines the different procedures set in place from the 1917 Code onwards; in Part II he looks at the right of defence and the CIC in theory and practice with reference to local legislation in Ireland and the US.

Developments since the CIC – in 2001 and 2010 – have made universal what had been particular law for the US since 1994 and for Ireland since 1996. A new feature is that a cleric who makes, acquires, possesses or distributes pornographic images of a minor under 14 for any shameful purpose is liable to punishment. There is also a clear declaration of the length of prescription in reserved cases. However, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is now the first and second instance court and has the faculty to derogate from prescription in individual cases; effectively, the application or derogation of prescription in cases of clerical child sexual abuse of minors is now arbitrary. Accusations dating back several decades can now be considered by the CDF and there is no way of knowing on what basis it will make a decision to apply or derogate from prescription.

The right to a trial for an accused cleric disappeared in 2003 when Blessed John Paul II granted the CDF the faculty to dispense with judicial trials; this was consolidated in 2010. In place of a trial the CDF can decide ex officio to proceed by means of an extrajudicial decree as per Canon 1720 of the CIC. Perpetual expiatory penalties may only be imposed by mandate of the CDF, which can also submit the gravest cases to the Pope with a request for dismissal from the clerical state. Richardson considers several cases, some unpublished until now, and notes the use of administrative and therapeutic categories instead of legal ones, as well as secular government reports into clerical sexual abuse of minors in Ireland and the US, which he criticises. He argues that the main issue in the canon law is the attempt to theologise that law and an unwillingness to translate theological categories into legal ones, and that this is the root of the malaise which has led to injustices. He notes that bishops are more likely to consider themselves as pastors, have conflated any distinctions between their powers of government under the term ‘pastoral’ and have preferred executive to judicial procedures.

In summary, the right to a fair trial was upheld in theory by the 1917 Code but undermined in practice by the possibility of suspension; it was not even upheld in theory by Crimen sollicitationis. The right was restored by the CIC but was again undermined by the possibility of forced laicisations by rescript; it was again upheld in 2001 but from 2002 was undermined by the CDF, who could waive prescription. From 2003 no cleric has had the right to a trial if he is accused and this was confirmed in 2010. Richardson concludes that what is now needed is an independent system of canonical courts to which all, including local ordinaries, are subject. In summary, this is an indispensable book for those interested in defending the rights of accused clerics in the Western Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches.