Inadvertently proclaimed from housetop. Kindly destroy.

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 07, 2003

Happens to the best of us. You tap out an e-mail listing felons of your acquaintance and -- drat! -- you copy it to the wrong address-group.

An inadvertently disclosed e-mail reveals that 21 priests and two other church officials in the Catholic Diocese of Jackson have been accused of sexual misconduct with children over the past 60 years, a court brief says. The brief is based on information in the e-mail mistakenly sent from a legal assistant for diocese attorneys to the attorney for three brothers suing the diocese for $48 million over alleged sexual abuse by a priest some 30 years ago. ... The information in the e-mail prompted Marcie Fyke, attorney for the brothers, to file the brief asking the state Supreme Court to force the diocese to produce the church's secret files. Diocese attorney J. Jeffrey Trotter said Wednesday he couldn't comment. In court papers, Trotter said, "I requested that she (Fyke) return or destroy the file and make no use of the information since it was inadvertent disclosure of confidential and privileged information."

You probably won't believe me, but I can remember a time when the Church actually wanted the facts to get out, when her chief concern was how best to shout the truth about herself.

"If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

No mention of inadvertent disclosure in Matthew 10. Strange, strange ...