Act before Media Has to Expose Crimes Warns Cardinal

By Michael Kelly
Irish Catholic
February 6, 2012

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/act-media-has-expose-crimes-warns-cardinal

A senior Vatican official has warned Church leaders that they must be proactive in addressing allegations of abuse rather than waiting on the media to expose such crimes.

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told delegates at a Vatican-sponsored conference on abuse that it had to be acknowledged that Church leaders in various parts of the world often only adopted tough policies after serious mishandling of abuse was exposed by the media. He also warned that the Church had to make the victims of abuse the first consideration in all circumstances.

'Towards Healing and Renewal' is being attended by Church leaders from over 100 countries including Cardinal Seán Brady and Bishop Eamonn Walsh representing Ireland.

The aim of the conference is to ensure that bishops' conferences in other parts of the world, particularly the developing world, learn from the mistakes that were made in countries like Ireland and avoid a repeat of those mistakes.

Cardinal Levada underlined the fact that child sexual abuse is not just a crime in Canon Law but also a crime in civil law. He insisted that Church leaders had an obligation to report "such crimes to the appropriate authorities."

Referring to the need for every bishops' conference in the world to adopt guidelines on handling abuse before the summer, Cardinal Levada said that while the conference did not override the authority of each individual diocesan bishop, "no bishop or major superior may consider himself exempt from such collaboration". This can be interpreted as a reference to Bishop John Magee of Cloyne who, despite signing up to the Church's robust guidelines of handling abuse allegations, went on to ignore the guidelines for another 12 years.

Dr Levada also praised the current Pope for his role in dealing with abuse both as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and since being elected Pope in 2005. He said that instead of "attacks by the media," Benedict deserves "the gratitude of us all, in the Church and outside it".

Praising countries like Ireland where robust procedures have been agreed and implemented the Cardinal also said it had to be acknowledged that "in many cases, such response came only in the wake of the revelation of scandalous behaviour by priests in the public media," he said. "What seems useful going forward is a more proactive approach by conferences of bishops throughout the world.