Business as usual at the Vatican:
The Vatican has declined to respond to an explosive grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by priests and bishops in Pennsylvania, refusing even to say whether church officials in Rome have read the damaging documents.
“We have no comment at this time,” Paloma Ovejero, deputy director of the Vatican’s press office, said Wednesday.
But in the United States and elsewhere, pressure is mounting on Pope Francis to address a rapidly escalating crisis that has spread across several continents, from Australia to Latin America.
In the United States, both liberal and conservative Catholics displayed a rare unity in pressing the Pope to respond to the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
“The silence from the Vatican is disturbing,” said Massimo Faggioli, a theology professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. “I don’t think the Pope necessarily has to say something today. He needs time to understand the situation. But someone from the Vatican should say something.”
Faggioli noted that Wednesday is a national holiday in Italy, and many church offices are closed. But he also noted that it was well-known that Pennsylvania’s grand jury report, which was in the works since 2016, would be released on Tuesday.
“I don’t think they understand in Rome that this is not just a continuation of the sexual abuse crisis in the United States,” Faggioli said. “This is a whole different chapter. There should be people in Rome telling the Pope this information, but they are not, and that is one of the biggest problems in this pontificate — and it’s getting worse.”
Go here to read the rest. This is one problem that long predates Pope Francis. However, he has given no evidence of understanding how destructive of Catholic faith this all is. Instead, he has frequently appointed to high positions within the Church men who have almost certainly engaged in sexual abuse themselves or covered the sexual abuse of others. When it comes to the abuse crisis, Pope Francis is part of the problem and not any part of the solution.
All the companies I’ve worked for were results driven and would/did clamp down on corrupt behavior in a heartbeat. The Church is not?
I would be interested in learning the ratio of convictions to allegations of child abuse.
In Scotland, where there is no statute of limitations, it is about 1 in 30, with about half of cases reported to the Crown Office being marked “No Proceedings Meanwhile” (i.e. Want of corroboration). Of those cases that go to trial, about half result in an acquittal, many on a successful submission of No Case to Answer.
This is what you get when you have a narcissistic sub-culture within the Church who think they are somehow above the Law because they wear a collar. Priests are not above the Law- they need to be held accountable starting from the Pope down to the Deacons. The Church needs to put into place best-practise procedure of what is the correct way of dealing with a predator. Firstly, Law enforcement needs to be notified from the moment an allegation is made- clergy do not have the knowledge or authority of dealing with a crime. The offender needs to be stood down immediately as he awaits trial until his name is cleared. This is the only way to clean out the filth from the Church. But I think most people are not holding their breath that this will happen, and so we wait and hope for these disgusting old men to die soon. I suspect this was the reason Pope Benedict resigned- the whole situation is so ingrained in the heirarchy, I don’t think he knew what to do. But to imply as this article suggests that people are not informing the Pope of this, is a joke. He knows. And if he doesn’t, why is he occupying The Chair of St Peter?
This Pope has surrounded himself with cronies and associates who are either homosexuals, or crooks, or both. In fact, his election was promoted by prelates of the same ilk. So to suggest that he doesn’t know anything, or is poorly advised, is just laughable….but not surprising, given the papolatrist track record of Faggioli. And as “The Dictator Pope” point out, this Pope has spies everywhere. No, he’s silent because he and his advisors are trying to come up with some convincing-sounding spin. They will fail.
How is it a “whole different chapter” when accusations are collected from the 1940s?
Near as I can figure it out, isn’t the New Paradigm based on pastoral laxity? Won’t any effective response to the current crisis pretty much have to derail the New Paradigm project?
–The Church needs to put into place best-practise procedure of what is the correct way of dealing with a predator.
They HAVE these in place and simply don’t do it! Read the hundreds of pages of released investigation and testimony in the Minneapolis St. Paul case, where the courageous Jennifer Haselberger, who was Chancellor for Canonical Affairs quit and went to the cops and press. Read her statement–all of it.
This *is* a continuation of the old filth. They never tried to clean it up. They got rid of some priests here and there, a couple bishops, but protected almost everyone higher up and they rose higher and higher.
Until they admit there are sins that cry out to Heaven, until they admit they’ve put committed evil by doing nothing, until they admit there’s a Hell they should end up in, until they admit that they aren’t the persecuted, suffering servants here, but are the problem, it will not change.
“They HAVE these in place and simply don’t do it! “
Thanks Alice, I didn’t know there was such a thing as protocol for abuse allegations anywhere in the Church because I have never heard it being enforced or talked about by our Parish priests. I guess if it’s universal and not enforced then it’s not really protocol but mere lip service. I’m interested to read about that case you mentioned butnif she had to quit in order to seek justice, what does that say.
We have a siatuation here in Australia where priests in canberra (the capital city of Australia) could face criminal charges if they don’t go to the police if they hear child sex abuse allegations in the Confessional. The legislation only recently was introduced. It’s been rejected by thousands of priests in Australia who say they won’t break the Seal of Confession. Which I’m glad.
But you wander why they throw their arms up in defence when it is the filth ingrained which got us to this point in the first place. It is now a common thinking to assume in mainstream society if you encounter a priest then don’t let your children near them. It’s in the comedy, the talk-back radio, the news, all the running commentary. How sad and humiliating for us faithful Catholics. But how can you defend this prejudice when the statistics are there?
Has anyone ever heard a demand from a bishop for justice to be meted out to an abuser of children?
I have never heard nor read of such a thing.
References to the need for “healing” and the damage done to the Church abound, but calls for justice?
And, timing being relevant in this case, some of the assaults described appear to me so egregious they should be classed as capital crimes with the death penalty justly meted out to the offenders. And thus the recent ridiculous call for “inadmissibility” thereof seems especially cynical.
“All the companies I’ve worked for were results-driven and would/did
clamp down on corrupt behavior in a heartbeat. The Church is not?”
I’d say the Church — at least the leadership and bureaucracy, not the
‘Church’ in the supernatural sense of the word– is very results-driven
indeed. It’s just that the salvation of souls doesn’t appear to be the
result our leadership wants. If it were, they’d have moved heaven and
earth to address this corruption ages ago. Rather, the goal too many
Church Professionals actually want appears to be their continued
comfort and prestige as they work to break down the institutions of our
Church so they can remake Her into something else more to their liking.
Actually addressing their corruption and their failures would involve a
diminution of their comfort and prestige. It would also inevitably require
the removal of players otherwise useful in the attempt to remake the
Church. During this pontificate, I don’t see Rome forcing them to
address their failures in any meaningful way, nor do I know of any
mechanism with which the laity can make them give a damn. Oh,
there’ll be episcopal hand-wringing again, and solemn pronouncements,
and some of the less useful miscreants might be thrown under the bus,
but the true, underlying reasons this happened will never be addressed
for the simple reason that to do so would interfere with the results
desired by too many of the USCCB and its apparatchiks.
Pope Francis is a disappointment on multiple levels. He is not a reliable guardian and expositor of Catholic doctrine and he is politically corrupt as far as the people he surrounds himself with and who he protects.
I have ZERO confidence in Pope Francis and hope his Reign of Terror ends soon.
they need to be held accountable starting from the Pope down to the Deacons.
Perhaps my understanding of sovereign immunity is incorrect, but the Pope, as the head of state of Vatican City, could not be held accountable by the US or other governments that subscribe to SI. As for the VC holding him accountable, well, there will be Disney on Ice in Hades before that happens.
Rush to comment on a report from a body that is famous for the ease in which they be gulled into indicting a ham sandwich? You’re kiddiing, aren’t you lawyer McClarey?
Have you read the report Micha? If not, you should do so. No legal proceedings are being initiated by it, and it is absolutely damning. Most of it comes from documents subpoenaed from the Church.