The case of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Pantiere, a hamlet in the municipality of Castelbellino, in the province of Ancona, has recently made headlines, where the parish priest, on the occasion of producing a certificate requested by a faithful about to get married, discovered that his predecessor (now deceased) had “forgotten” to record, in the appropriate parish book, the certificates of the sacrament of confirmation administered from 1980 to 1995. In order to solve the problem, the priest now leading the parish allegedly had the “idea,” as reported by journalistic sources, of reconstructing the data to be included in the confirmation book by asking for collaboration from the entire community, which was mobilized to search for photos of religious ceremonies from those years, also to establish dates of liturgies and confirmands present, thus succeeding in partially rectifying the archival data.

The affair has some profiles of interest, also because of the solution adopted by the parish community and on the subject of the parish priest's responsibility and the protection of confidentiality and good reputation.

According to canon 535 §1 of the Code of Canon Law, in every parish there must be parish books, that is, the book of the baptized, of marriages, of the deceased, and possibly other books according to the provisions given by the Episcopal Conference or the diocesan bishop. It is the parish priest who must see to it that such books are carefully compiled, diligently preserved and kept, as §4 of the same canon reminds us, in the parish archives, together with the bishops' letters and other documents that are to be kept because of their necessity or usefulness. These books and documents are to be inspected by the diocesan bishop or his delegate during the pastoral visitation or at other appropriate time. In addition, the canonical norms, marking a great deal of attention on the matter, also recall that: “In addition to the faculties legitimately given to him by particular law, the vicar forane has the duty and right:: 3° of seeing [...]hat the parochial registers are inscribed correctly and protected appropriately” (can. 555, § 1).

In Resolution No. 7, promulgated on December 23, 1983, the Italian Bishops' Conference specified that: “In archivio parrocchiale vi siano, oltre ai libri resi obbligatori dal can. 535, § 1 e a quanto prescritto nei cann. 1284, § 2, n. 9 e 1307, il registro delle cresime, i registri dell’amministrazione dei beni e il registro dei legati” also recommending the keeping of “il registro dello status animarum, il registro delle prime comunioni, il registro della cronaca parrocchiale”. The 2018 General Decree of the CEI for the protection of the right to good reputation and confidentiality more specifically defined the term “register” as the volume in which the celebration of sacraments or other facts concerning ecclesial membership or participation are recorded in chronological succession and with indexes, confirming that the responsibility for keeping the registers normally lies with the person who is entrusted with the governance of the entity (in the case the parish priest), also providing for the possibility of using computer registers, but not in place of paper registers (Art. 8 CEI Decree) taking into account that “gli strumenti multimediali non sono in grado di garantire la completa sicurezza della privacy né la tutela dai rischi informatici (hackeraggio) con tutte le altre conseguenze” (Particular Response of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts Circa l’uso dei sistemi informatici web-based nella gestione dei dati sacramentali (can. 535 CIC) of December 16, 2014 ).

Connected to the duty of keeping parish books/records is, according to can. 487 §2, the subjective right of the faithful concerned to obtain, free of charge, personally or through a proxy, authentic manuscript or photostatic copies of documents which by their nature are public and which concern the state of their person; corresponding to this is the duty of the body to exhibit them to the requestor, although it is specified in the General Decree of the CEI for the protection of the right to good reputation and confidentiality that excluded from the duty of exhibition are those data which, not coming from the requestor, are covered by secrecy established by law or regulation or are not separable from those which concern third parties and whose confidentiality requires protection and that, in addition, the interested party has no right of inspection of the data in the register and data removed from his knowledge (Art. 8 §5).

In the case of confirmation, in the special compulsory book to be kept and preserved in the parish archives, according to Italian particular law, the names of the confirmed, the minister, the parents and godparents, and the place and day of the conferral of confirmation are to be recorded (can. 895); the parish priest is also required to inform the parish priest of the place of baptism of the confirmation, so that an entry may be made in the book of the baptized of the confirmation. Proper maintenance of the register will make it possible to satisfy any requests for attestation by the faithful concerned. However, the Code stipulates that when it is not possible to prove the reception of the sacrament through the “book of the confirmed” (destruction of the book, absence of the record...) the “statement of a single witness above suspicion, or the oath of the same” confirmed will be sufficient, provided that he or she received the sacrament not in infancy (from the age of 7) and provided that no harm is done to anyone. Witnesses may include the parents of the confirmed person or the godfather/godmother.

In the matter before us, while the initiative of the parish priest, with the direct involvement of the parish community in reconstructing the facts, may be considered useful, it is believed that it cannot be considered sufficient, in order to rectify what happened, to have recourse only to photos or videos and the consequent transcription of the data recovered in the parish register, but it will be necessary - also because of the publicity of the fact in the community - to proceed according to the clear codal indications and, after reconstructing the facts and the persons involved, receive a testimonial statement or an oath from the confirmed, possibly in written form, about the reception of the sacrament, keeping the original documents of these attestations and providing, thereafter, for entries in the baptismal register or communications to the parish priest of the place of baptism.

This will also guarantee the rights to the processing of personal data related to the faithful involved, taking into account that the guarantee of absolute confidentiality of the data contained in the registers “è prioritario dovere dei ministri e della Chiesa”  (Particular Response of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts Circa l’uso dei sistemi informatici web-based nella gestione dei dati sacramentali (can. 535 CIC) of December 16, 2014 ). What is gathered “communally” in the reconstruction of facts may certainly be useful, but only as evidence to confirm the declaration or oath. As has been noted, in fact, the relevance of proving the reception of the sacrament would not be so much related to the validity of sacraments such as holy orders or marriage, also due to the fact that confirmation is not a requirement for their validity, as to the very non-repeatable nature of the sacrament (GIANLUCA MARCHETTI, Annotazione dell’avvenuta confermazione: can. 895, in Quaderni di diritto ecclesiale, 4/2021, p. 499).

The omission of the registration of confirmation for a good 15 years has been interpreted by the parish community as a “forgetfulness” of the previous pastor, well liked by all the faithful, and there is no reason, considering also the fact that the priest is deceased, to think otherwise. However, it should be pointed out that what happened could integrate, in the presence of all the elements provided for by canon law, the criminal case referred to in can. 1378 § 2, which states, “§ 2. A person who, through culpable negligence, unlawfully and with harm to another or scandal, performs or omits an act of ecclesiastical power or office or function, is to be punished according to the provision of can. 1336 §§ 2-4, without prejudice to the obligation of repairing the harm”.  Negligence demonstrated without, however, deliberate intent to violate the law, on which harmful consequences for third parties or scandalous consequences depend, requires, according to the canon, just reparation for the negative consequences determined for the individuals concerned and for the ecclesial community. Such a case, as doctrine also reminds us (BRUNO FABIO PIGHIN, Il nuovo sistema penale della Chiesa, Marcianum press, Venezia, 2021, p. 370), could occur precisely in the case of a parish priest who violates the functions assigned to him, punishable, therefore, with the determined expiatory penalty of injunction, prohibition or deprivation.

 Keyword: confirmation, annotation, proof of confirmation, parish books

Paolo Palumbo