BishopAccountability.org
	Advocates and Victims Skeptical over Vaticans Latest Sexaul Abuse Guidelines By Paula Brooks Lez Get Real May 17, 2011 http://lezgetreal.com/2011/05/advocates-and-victims-skeptical-over-vatican-latest-sexaul-abuse-guidelines/ Image.png Image via Wikipedia Over the weekend a 400 page Amnesty International report named the Vatican as a Human Rights abuser for failing to protect children from abuse and not complying with international mandates to protect children. Specifically the Vatican was called out for not removing alleged perpetrators from their posts pending proper investigations, not cooperating with judicial authorities to bring them to justice and not ensuring proper reparation to victims. In a worldwide letter to its bishops issued Monday, The Vatican has attempted to address that issue and has told its bishops they need to make fighting sexual abuse of minors by clerics a priority. It also said to the bishops they need to create “clear and coordinated” procedures to do this by next year and instructed the bishops to cooperate with local law enforcement authorities when it was required. The letter marks the latest effort by the Vatican to show the world just how serious it is about rooting out pedophile priests and preventing sexual abuse It also follows a global abuse scandal that last year had thousands of victims coming forward, and resulted in the Vatican ending up on the same human rights abuser list with the likes of Libya, China, Nigeria and North Korea. However, this latest Vatican proposal to address abusing priest is unlikely to impress either advocates or victims who have long blamed bishops set on protecting the church and its priests from scandal. Critics say the suggestions in the letter are vague and nonbinding and fall far short of recommending the tough tough policies that bar a credibly accused priest from ministry while the abuse case is investigated. They also note the letter from Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office which coordinates the church’s response to abuse cases, makes no provision to ensure the bishops actually follow the guidelines and reinforces bishops’ exclusive authority in dealing with abuse cases. Said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the victims group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests about the Vatican document, “Where’s the beef? There’s no enforcement here. There are no penalties for bishops who don’t come up with guidelines or who violate their own guidelines, just like right now, there are no penalties for bishops who ignore or conceal heinous child sex crimes. Until that happens – until top church officials who hide and enable abuse are severely disciplined – top church officials will continue to hide and enable abuse.” In 2002 and again 2010 the Vatican also said it had introduced stricter norms on sexual abuses in the wake of widespread revelations of child abuse by Catholic clergy. However just in the last year, Canadian bishop Raymond Lahey has admitted in a courtroom to possessing child pornography, disgraced Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe has admitted he had abused two child nephews, and a Philadelphia grand jury earlier this year indicted a high-ranking church official on child endangerment charges for allegedly transferring predator priests. Four co-defendants, two priests, an ex-priest and a former Catholic school teacher, are charged with raping children in the Philadelphia case. That same grand jury also found “substantial evidence of abuse” committed by at least 37 other priests who remained in active ministry at the time of the report. Philadelphia’s archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, initially insisted that no archdiocesan priests in ministry had an “admitted or established allegation” against them. But he later suspended two dozen of the 37 priests after the press picked up the story. Victim’s advocates say the Philadelphia scandal has exposed the loopholes of the Vatican-approved U.S. norms, just what happens when it is left entirely up to a bishops subjective opinion what determines whether there is “sufficient evidence” to warrant withdrawing accused priests from ministry or reporting the crime to police.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.