With the Catholic Church rocked by a devastating US report into child sex abuse, Pope Francis has this week sharpened his criticism on the explosive issue — but he remains under pressure to enact far-reaching changes.
The US grand jury report accused more than 300 “predator” priests in the state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children over seven decades, sparking a fresh bout of soul-searching among senior Catholics across the world.
“The clock is ticking for all of us in Church leadership. Catholics have lost patience with us and civil society has lost confidence in us,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who has been advising the pope on the issue, said in a statement last week.
The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, added: “It is not enough just to say sorry. Structures that permit or facilitate abuse must be broken down and broken down forever.
“Why does this not happen? Why must such a simple affirmation have to be repeated so often?” he said at a weekend mass in the Irish capital.
Martin, who will welcome the pope this weekend on his visit to Ireland — a country where abuse scandals have dealt profound blows to the Church’s credibility — said he believes the Vatican’s commission is too small to be effective.
Amid harrowing details of abuse, the US report directs this scathing comment to the Church hierarchy: “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”
The report once again puts the spotlight on Pope Francis, who has been criticised for not acting quickly enough to clamp down on the sprawling cases of abuse as well as for a reluctance to distance himself from certain cardinals suspected of omerta.
“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realising the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones,” the pontiff said in his letter earlier this week.
At the end of May, the Argentinian pope wrote a letter to the people of Chile, where an unfolding abuse scandal has sparked an impassioned debate.
This week in an unprecedented letter he addressed all of the globe’s 1.3 billion Catholics about the “atrocities” of abuse.
– ‘Excuses aren’t enough’ –
While Francis acknowledged the work being done in some parts of the world to protect children, he admitted that the Church had “delayed” in applying the necessary sanctions.
The pope “did not, however, offer any new specifics” on possible new accountability measures, said American Vatican-watcher John Allen, noting that Francis did not make a single mention of the word “bishop”.
“Among great swathes of public opinion, the idea is beginning to gain traction that mea culpas, statements and meetings with victims are not enough any more,” according to Marco Politi, an Italian Vatican expert.
“It is now up to Francis to act as supreme legislator” by modifying the Church’s canon law, Politi wrote in the Fatto Quotidiano newspaper.
He added that there were already “virtuous examples” in this area in the United States, Britain and Germany.
Journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, who has carried out several investigations into the workings of the Church, told AFP that Francis could go further.
“The pope could force bishops’ conferences to send recent reports of abuse to judicial authorities,” he said. “Excuses aren’t enough any more.”
That is a sentiment echoed by many abuse victims.
“We don’t want a trial within the Vatican!” said Francesco Zanardi, leader of an Italian abuse survivors’ association.
According to Vatican-focused blog “Il Sismografo,” the pope could soon publish specific guidelines for bishops on how to handle abuse claims — but the Vatican has not confirmed this.
In 2016, Francis instigated a change in canon law which meant bishops could be removed if they were found to be “negligent” in the face of reports of paedophilia.
However, within Church law there is no wider requirement to report cases to the relevant judicial authorities. In certain countries this is a legal obligation but in others, bishops are loath to make it a rule.
Some commentators are also urging the Church to use its response to the crisis to undertake a reconsideration of its stance on celibacy.
In an opinion article published this week in French newspaper Le Monde, French-Canadian writer Nancy Huston appealed to the pontiff to abolish celibacy for priests and recognise the importance of sexuality for human well-being.
But even though Pope Francis said in 2014 that “celibacy is not a dogma”, the Vatican does not yet seem ready to take the step of ending the practice.
New cardinal: Abuse victims should be ‘ashamed’ to speak due to their own failings
MEXICO, August 21, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – Reacting to the recent avalanche of reports of clerical sexual abuse around the world, a newly minted Mexican Cardinal has suggested that victims who accuse priests should be “ashamed” because they too have skeletons in their own closets.
Those who “accuse men of the Church should [be careful] because they have long tails that are easily stepped on,” said Cardinal Sergio Obeso Rivera according to a report in Crux.
“I’m here happy to talk about nice things, not about problematic things, it’s an accusation that is made, and in some cases it’s true,” said Obeso Rivera.
The cardinal’s remarks to journalists came after the release of a sweeping, two-year-long Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests. That report has sent shockwaves around the globe.
The bombshell Pennsylvania report became public while the scandal of homosexual abuse of seminarians and other young men and boys by disgraced, former Cardinal McCarrick was still making headlines.
Obeso Rivera’s statement also came on the heels of reports of a Honduran Cardinal’s mishandling of a crisis involving rampant homosexual activity at a major seminary in his archdiocese, as well as reports of complicity by Chilean Bishop Juan Barros in covering up a widespread child sex abuse scandal in his country.
Obeso Rivera was made a Cardinal by Pope Francis less than two months ago. He was formerly the Archbishop of Xalapa, in Veracruz, Mexico.
The whore of Babylon?
Shame on them. But I am sure they don’t even blush with shame.
The solution is simple, and therefore will not happen….No gays in the priesthood, priests allowed to marry women and have families.
NO!! NO!! NO!!
THE HANGMANS NOOSE!!
What fucking bullshit. The catholic criminal church has been given a pass for centuries. What the fuck why? If this was any other entity, they would be burned to the ground socially and criminally.
Most of these people aren’t openly gay though. Simply making that a rule won’t change much. Same with allowing them to marry. If these guys wanted to fuck women, there are plenty out there to choose from. Go get a hooker every now and then if you have to. I feel like it would be a lot easier to explain to the rest of your fellow preists and people still gullible enough to go to a catholic church that you tagged some random chicks sometimes than that you occasionally fucked one of their children. But they don’t, they fuck little kids because they are pedophiles. Simply saying you can’t be gay is like saying you can’t have a handgun in Chicago. Not gonna make a difference.
Liberals will have a field day with these priest’s having sex with boys, all while they defend NAMBLA…..
The priest said, “When I give you the signal, I want you to do the job I spoke to you about.”
“What signal?” asked the altar boy.
“Lowering my zipper.”
A priest was in the confessional getting ready to start confessions, when suddenly he felt an attack of diarrhea coming on. He looked outside and saw a parishoner sitting there. He pulled the man aside and asked if he could sit in the confessional while he went to the bathroom. The man explained that he didn’t know the penances for each sin. The priest told him that there was a list of the penances in the confessional. The man agreed to fill in and entered the confessional. A man came in to confess and said “Father I made whoopie with my neighbors wife around ten times” The man filling in couldn’t find making whoopie on the list. He looked outside and saw an altar boy walking by. He asked the altar boy, “He kid what does the priest give for making whoopie?” the altar boy replied “A Snickers bar”
Putting pressure on this pope – or any bishop – is a joke. How about putting pressure on the civil authorities – the cops, the district attorneys, the prosecutors, etc. to go after the abusers AND THEIR ENABLERS with every prosecutorial tool available. The civil authorities should say “fuck your counseling”, “fuck your treatment”, “fuck your repentance”, “fuck your regrets and your fucking sorrow”. “You, bishop, and your priests and are going to prison for the rest of your lives. You can repent all you want in there – or not – we don’t give a fuck”.
As much as homosexuals vehemently deny it, homosexuality and pedophilia are inextricably linked. Almost all homosexuals have had their first homosexual “experience” introduced to them by an ADULT homosexual as pre-teen males. This, in itself constitutes homosexual pedophilia, which is criminal behavior in itself and is a way to destroy a pre-teen child for life.
The so-called Roman Catholic priest “child abuse scandal” was actually homosexual pedophilia in action. Of course the “mainstream media” could not afford to offend the “homosexual community” by calling what it really was–thereby, the “play on words”, calling it “child sex abuse” rather than homosexual pedophilia–the true definition of their sordid behavior.
I must play “devil’s advocate” when it comes to the Catholic church homosexual pedophilic priest “problem”…The Catholic church was “caught between a rock and a hard place” and had every right to be concerned about how many false claims would be made by those parishioners who belonged to the parish at the same time as this behavior was going on. Follow the money… Of course, there is (and was) absolutely NO EXCUSE for this homosexual pedophilic behavior… make ’em pay.
Sad to say, the homosexuals are at it again, encouraging the “psychiatric community” to change the definition of pedophilia from a psychiatric “disorder” to a mere “lifestyle”, not unlike what was done for homosexuality. Sick, huh??
I sent the below link to a catholic deacon friend of mine after he strongly defends the church and has been for years. According to him it isn’t pedophilia if the child is old enough to start puberty. Indeed the link says that under canon law the age of a child is 7 and below so that is what defines pedophilia to them. The link also backs up what I was telling him that the church has recognized this problem since the 5th century.
http://www.crusadeagainstclergyabuse.com/htm/AShortHistory.htm
But as David Icke points out all of society practices child abuse from wealthy, politicians, religious and plain sociopaths. Archons, dude.
Archons Indeed. Going Dark the AI is watching
Why are homosexuality and pedophilia inextricably linked?
Because homosexuals are a small sexual minority- they have a far smaller pool of potential adult sex partners. Therefore, they are more likely to reach into the underage cookie jar. If heterosexuals were a small sexual minority, they’d do the same thing… but they’re not.
This is a world wide pedophile, sex ring. Not some random occurrence. Notice, how many Lutheran’s, Protestants, Methodists, Rabbis, are charged with pedophilia? Virtually none. There you have your answer.
This is no different than organized crime. It’s time for the authorities to intervene. How anyone can excuse this behavior, or even believe in the Catholic Cult, is beyond me.
Instead of taking pimp money from the church parents need to kill a few priests and bishops.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League defends predatory priests.”It’s not rape if there was no penetration”
http://angelqueen.org/2018/08/19/catholic-league-on-predatory-priests-its-not-rape-if-the-child-isnt-penetrated/
At what point is it reasonable to consider all practising Catholics to be complicit in these crimes if they continue to financially support the church?
Soul searching? The corrupt anti-Christians known as Roman Catholics should just convert to Christianity. Or if they really wish to cling to their Anti-Christ institutions, they need to end the non-biblical celibacy nonsense that literally attracts only perverts.