Trials where the church is judge, jury
Priests and accusers are turning to canonical tribunals to sort out sex abuse allegations taken up by no other court.
By Ellen Barry, Times Staff Writer
November 18, 2006

ERIE, PA. — This is as close to a courtroom as Daniel Donohue can hope to get: a nondescript room in a church office building, where three priests on Friday carried out a legal procedure that dates to the 12th century.

The experience was at once ordinary and archaic. A tape recorder sat next to him, beeping occasionally. Behind him sat the "promoter of justice," the New York Archdiocese's equivalent of a district attorney. When Donohue walked in, he was asked to sign an oath not to discuss the case again. the rest