As Un Committee Grills Vatican Reps on Sex Abuse...

By Anthea Butler
Religion Dispatches
January 16, 2014

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/antheabutler/7509/un_committee_grills_vatican_reps_on_sex_abuse__pope_francis_meets_with_cardinal_mahony/

In his ongoing PR mission to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s image, Pope Francis may have taken a misstep. Today the Pope concelebrated mass with Cardinal Roger Mahony (who cheerfully blogged about it here) on the same day that the United Nations Committee on Convention of the Rights of the Child heard over eight hours of testimony from the Vatican on the ongoing sexual abuse scandal.

Interestingly enough, in the homily from that concelebrated mass, Pope Francis commented, “Scandals in the Church happen because there is no living relationship between God and His word. Thus, corrupt priests, instead of giving the bread of life, give a poisoned meal to the people of god.” No kidding.

For years the Cardinal’s malfeasance handed the people in my former parish of St. Agatha’s in West Los Angeles a poisoned meal, when young girls were molested there during the 1970s. Mahony, who swept much of the Los Angeles abuse scandal under the rug for his own agenda, is exactly the kind of cleric Pope Francis berated in his homily today.

And yet, as Cardinal Mahony reported in his blog, when he talked privately with the pontiff after the Mass, the topic of scandal did not come up—even though Mahony presided over the largest payout to abuse survivors in the Unites States, (660 million, plus a 10 million dollar civil suit). "Most of our conversation focused on the plight of migrants, immigrants, and refugees around the world," Mahony says.

The same morning of the mass, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi and Vatican representatives were being grilled in Geneva on releasing records relating to sexual abuse around the world. Specific instances on which the commission repeatedly hammered the Vatican representatives included children missing from the Magdalene laundry scandal in Ireland, the issue of corporal punishment of children, and the excommunication of a nine-year-old girl for having an abortion because she was pregnant by her stepfather.

Tepid answers by the committee ensued, with one exchange in particular rather shocking. At one point Archbishop Tomasi seemed to suggest that the sexual abuse problem was “only in the West” because of the shortage of priests.

While answers were few, and explanations fewer from Archbishop Tomasi, the fact that the Vatican had to appear today in front of the United Nations committee is a win. The hearing at the UN is the first time the Vatican has answered to an outside authority regarding sexual abuse. The weakness of their answers to the UN committee rests on the Vatican’s assertions that although it is a state, it does not have jurisdiction over the thousands of archdioceses, dioceses, churches and religious groups throughout the world.

At the same time, all of these are expected to follow the rules of canon law, and their local bishops, who receive direction from the Vatican, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Make no mistake, the appearance of the Vatican in front of the this particular committee—the same UN committee that deals with child soldiers and sexual exploitation of children— is sobering.

The Holy See will only begin to make substantive changes when there are lasting legal victories against not only perpetrators, but also against administrators who continue to move perpetrators to other churches and countries, allowing them to continue molesting and abusing children. The first such conviction of a diocesan administrator, Monsignor William Lynn of the Philadelphia archdiocese, was recently overturned due to a technicality. The DA has vowed to re-prosecute the case but this will take time. Meanwhile, Bishop Flinn of Kansas City, convicted of failure to report child abuse, remains in office.

While a battle between liberal and conservative Catholics is brewing about Pope Francis and what he should be doing/saying, no crisis in the church is bigger than the sexual abuse scandal.

Consider the Pope’s homily in light of the UN/Vatican meeting: Francis spoke about the book of Samuel 4:4-11, in which Israel suffers defeat by the Philistines because of its distance from God. The Catholic Church will continue to suffer shame and defeat if Pope Francis does not take concrete steps to release the archives of sexual abuse, removing not only pedophile priests, but also punishing bishops and cardinals who buried abuse scandals.

Pope Francis may believe that his homily was a powerful message to the clergy, but in this instance, as he concelebrated Mass with Cardinal Mahony, his words ring hollow.