I have maintained a drumbeat on the reality that despite Pope Francis' nice words, nothing has really changed at the Vatican. And nowhere is this more true than in the context of the worldwide sex abuse scandal and the Church hierarchy's continued effort to maintain a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. With the U.N. demanding answers from the Vatican about the cover ups and the past disingenuous claims that the Vatican has no responsibility for the actions of priests or bishops no longer cutting it with the U.N. or sentient individuals, Pope Francis runs the risk of quickly losing credibility and assigning himself to the failed status of Benedict XVI. A long piece in the National Catholic Reporter looks at the high risks faced by Francis and also the deliberate malfeasance and cover ups by bishops. Here are article highlights:
For the first time in the decades-long church sex abuse scandal, senior Vatican officials last week appeared before an independent outside body charged with holding it responsible for protecting children.
They took a grilling in Geneva by the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Vatican's alleged failure to abide by terms of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Vatican has long insisted it isn't responsible for abusive priests because they aren't employees of the Vatican, and they repeated the excuse last Thursday.
"Priests are not functionaries of the Vatican," Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, told the committee. "Priests are citizens of their own states, and they fall under the jurisdiction of their own country."
Survivor groups and human rights organizations again dismissed the excuses, reportedly showing the committee documents (it has long shared with others) revealing how Rome had discouraged bishops from reporting abusers to police.
It is the Vatican, or more specifically the pope, after all, who appoints, sustains, and relieves bishops. The larger clergy scandal from the outset has always involved the hierarchy, those clerics directly responsible to the pope. In case after case for decades they put institutional concerns, including their own interests, ahead of those of the children. This has been the situation throughout the world.
For these tragic actions and despite thousands of abuse cases, not one bishop has yet to spend a day behind bars. The bishops have not been held accountable. It is for this reason the Vatican in general, and Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict, specifically, have lost credibility among much of the faithful.
A brief look into U.S. church history, where the first public reports of clergy sex abuse surfaced, adds perspective and helps outline the scope of the challenge facing the pontiff.
The issues of the multi-layered abuse patterns were first placed before the U.S. bishops in a 92-page report way back in June 1985 at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn.
Among the insights in that 1985 document were clear statements that while help can be provided for abusive priests, there is "no hope" for a permanent “cure,” that a bishop "should suspend immediately" any priest accused of sexual abuse when "the allegation has any possible merit or truth." It placed the responsibility directly in the laps of the bishops. They, of course, ignored the warnings, as some, incredibly to say, still seem to do so today.
The landmark report urged the bishops to abandon their strategy of staying away from the media, warning, "In this sophisticated society a media policy of silence implies either necessary secrecy or cover-up."
Sadly, there seemed to be a fair measure of this same attitude in Vatican remarks made Thursday in Geneva.
Last month, Francis announced he would set up a special commission on the sexual abuse of children to advise him on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families.
National Survivor Advocates Coalition responded that the work of the commission will be "a whitewash if there is no dedicated attempt to deal with those who covered up crimes, namely bishops, the Vatican, its staff and staffs in chanceries."
Survivor advocates again expressed the same sentiments to the U.N. committee last week.
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