Priests tried by Church courts

The first of what could be as many as 12 secret church trials of Roman Catholic priests from the Chicago archdiocese accused of sexual misconduct with minors is under way.

Sometime after the first of the year, a special tribunal of three canon law judges began its formal inquiry into the alleged sex abuse offenses by a priest whose name cannot be released because of the “pontifical secret,” a kind of ecclesiastical gag order from the Vatican that forbids anyone involved in the trial to publicly disclose its details, said the Rev. Daniel Smilanic, adjutant vicar for the Chicago archdiocese and a canon law expert familiar with the trial that is under way.