By Kelly Heffernan-Tabor
digtriad
June 8, 2010
http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=143414&catid=175
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Rome, Italy -- A U.S.- based organization, Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP has prepared a letter for Pope Benedict calling on the pontiff for action and not words to deal with priests who have abused children.
At the beginning of a news conference in Rome, the group, all of whom were sexually abused by priests, presented pictures of children who had been victims of clergy sex abuse. They also stuck pictures of priests accused of sexual abuse and leading members of the catholic church including Pope Benedict on to the wall.
The group have timed their news conference to coincide with a further apology over sex abuse in the church expected to be made by Pope Benedict sometime this week at a meeting of the world's priests at the Vatican. The meeting was initially called to mark the end of the Vatican's Year of the Priest but Vatican specialists believe it may become the ideal forum for a mea culpa from the pope to be issued.
"While words do serve a purpose and an apology is one small step, we believe there are also three necessary steps to follow in order for this apology to have any real meaning," said SNAP director for the West of the United States, Joelle Casteix at the news conference.
The group is pushing for Pope Benedict to co-operate with state enquiries into abuse cover-ups, to reform laws that currently protect abusers and to create a global child molesting clerics registry to publicly list priests who have been proven or who are credibly accused as pedophile priests.
"We are hopeful for a zero tolerance policy where anyone who hurts a child or harbors someone who hurts a child is immediately removed and immediately turned over to secular law enforcement in the city, country or region where they live," Casteix said.
"We are hoping for complete transparency on behalf of the Pope where he will talk about his personal thirty year history in covering up for the sexual abuse for children in the United States and around the world," she said.
"And we are looking for a reckoning which involves the halting of the canonization process for Pope John Paul II until a complete investigation can be made into what happened to children during his reign whether that be sexual abuse, the cover-up of predators, or the facilitation of abuse by hiding crucial evidence and files within the Vatican or within dioceses offices around the world," Casteix said.
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, formerly the Vatican official in charge of priests around the world, dragged the Polish pope John Paul II into the controversy earlier this year by implying that the former pontiff approved of covering up sexual abuse claims.
So far this year, Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of Irish, Belgian and German bishops accused of mishandling reports of sexual abuse. In March 2010 the pontiff publicly apologized to victims of child sex abuse by Irish clergy, saying he felt "shame and remorse."
SNAP Director for the midwest United States, Peter Isley held up pictures of three leading cardinals who the group believe should step down due to their involvement of covering up sexual abuse claims. Isley named Cardinal Hoyos, Cardinal Bertone, current Secretary of State for the Vatican and Cardinal Sodano, the Vatican's former secretary of state as the three who should be immediately removed from their positions.
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