The Vatican Symposium on " Healing and Renewal"

SNAP Wisconsin
February 11, 2012

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Catholic bishops and religious superiors from around the world descended upon Rome for the Vatican sponsored conference titled "Towards Healing and Renewal". The four day symposium, which ran from February 6th -9th, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, was billed as a "global initiative on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults".

Organizers of the conference stated that the purpose of the event was to help bishops create guidelines on how to handle reports of childhood sexual abuse. Instructing the bishops on how to best safeguard and protect children were their colleagues; cardinals, bishops, and church approved mental health experts. The very same "experts" and church officials who bear responsibility for the continued cover up of clergy child sex crimes "instructed" the world's bishops on how to best protect children in their care.

The keynote address was provided by Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Vatican department responsible for collecting and examining evidence of child sex crimes from throughout the world.

Levada himself covered up criminal reports of child rape and sexual assault when he served as archbishop of San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon. Levada had earlier addressed the worldwide explosion of clergy child sex assault reports by stating "So this is a crisis if you will that I think caught most of us by surprise". Levada was fully briefed on the magnitude of the crisis in a 92 page report presented to him in 1985 by Fr. Thomas Doyle, a Vatican canon lawyer. Levada was not caught by surprise; in fact he was one of the first bishops to learn of the magnitude of sexual assault reports facing the church.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the "promoter of justice" at the CDF also spoke at the event. Scicluna worked alongside Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for ten years, reviewing reports of childhood rape and sexual assault. Scicluna remarked that the goal of the conference was to create an "increased awareness" among the bishops about the problem of child rape. It is deeply troubling that after years of revelations concerning the rape and assault of children by catholic clerics in almost every country where the church has a presence, that bishops need more "awareness".

Scicluna has remarked that the possible ordination of women was as serious a moral offense, possibly worse, than the rape of a child, explaining that "sexual abuse and pornography are more grave delicts, they are an egregious violation of moral law…attempted ordination of women is grave, but on another level".

Scicluna declared that "a great deal of time will be devoted to hearing the victims" at the conference. The four day schedule allowed one victim, a courageous survivor from Ireland, the opportunity to speak. That survivor, Marie Collins, has been an outspoken advocate for survivors in her home country.

Collins, who was in Dublin's cathedral to hear Archbishop Martin publicly apologize for the hierarchies' role in covering up child sex crimes in Ireland, commented about Martin's address stating he was "absolutely clear about the accountability of the leadership in the diocese and not just the abusers…that is not something we have heard clearly before".

Collins didn't hear Archbishop Martin apologize on the church's behalf when she attended the symposium in Rome because Martin, the only bishop to have turned over 70,000 documents containing evidence of child sex crimes to authorities, wasn't invited.

Fr. Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office remarked that Martin wasn't snubbed; it was simply that conference organizers wanted speakers from all of the earth's continents.

Lombardi knows why Martin wasn't invited; Diarmuid Martin has called publicly for a full institutional accounting of child sex crimes in the church, having once remarked "the truth will set us free", while "continued secrecy will enslave us forever".

Deeply troubling to victim/survivors of clergy sexual assault was the appearance of Monsignor Stephen Rossetti who ran St. Luke's Residential Treatment Program for sex offending clerics in Maryland. St. Luke's Institute is known for "treating" sexual predators and then returning them to unsuspecting parishes where they are free to assault more children.

It was an affront to the thousands of victim/survivors and their families from around the world that the Vatican insisted on turning a conference supposedly centered on child protection into a publicity stunt. The same church officials who hosted this "conference" are the same clerics who conspired, enabled, and covered up child sex crimes for decades, and left countless victims in their wake. It is unconscionable that these same individuals would purport to instruct others, even bishops, on how to protect children.

The conference was notable for those who did not attend; there were no law enforcement officials, no victim's advocacy organizations, no human rights organizations, and no mental health professionals not affiliated with the church.

If the Vatican was serious about protecting and safeguarding children Pope Benedict XVI would have ordered the conference cancelled and instructed Cardinal Levada and Monsignor Scicluna to go into their offices at the CDF and retrieve and turn over the thousands of files they have in their possession, which document child sex crimes from throughout the world, and turn them over immediately to the International Criminal Court for investigation and prosecution.