Pope John Paul II Was No Saint but Man Who Covered up Sin
By Nick Squires
Pope John Paul II should not be made a saint this weekend because of his abject failure to bring to justice sexually abusive priests and the bishops who covered up their crimes, victims of clerical sex abuse said today. The late Polish pontiff could have prevented "thousands" of children from being raped by pedophile priests but instead chose to ignore the scandal in the interests of protecting the image of the Catholic Church, victims from three continents said on the eve of his canonization. Up to a million Catholic faithful from around the world are expected to pour into St Peter’s Square on Sunday to see Pope Francis canonize not only Pope John Paul II but also Pope John XXIII, an Italian pontiff who reigned in the 1960s. But campaigners say that John Paul’s refusal to tackle the sex abuse crisis that exploded during his papacy means he is not worthy of sainthood. “It’s time for the Vatican to stop honouring those who enabled wrongdoing,” said Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which represents 18,000 people from 79 countries who were sexually abused by members of the Catholic Church. “There is irrefutable documentary evidence to show that John Paul II refused to take action that would have protected children during his 27-year papacy. Thousands of victims were abused because John Paul refused to read the reports he was receiving,” said Mrs Blaine, from the US. Supporters of the late Polish Pope say he was slow to wake up to the enormity of the sex abuse scandal because in his homeland he had witnessed the Communist authorities use trumped-up allegations against the clergy to attack the Church. They also claim that his aides may have known of the scandals but kept them from the Pope – an argument discounted by victims’ groups. While the abuse done to victims in the past cannot be erased, campaigners say the Church needs to take concrete action now in order to prevent children in the future from being sexually abused. “We will never know what it may have been like to grow up not being raped. We cannot go back, but we can try to prevent others from enduring the same hardships that we endured,” said Mrs Blaine, who was abused as a child by a priest. The campaigners will hold a candle-lit vigil on Friday evening on a hotel roof overlooking St Peter’s Square in order to “remember the victims who lost their innocence under the regime of John Paul II.” David D’Bonnabel, 53, from Austria, another victim of priestly sex abuse, said: “It rubs salt into an open wound to promote someone who enabled and protected sexual predators. The injuries last a life time.” In Austria, the Church has paid token compensation to 1,800 victims of sex abuse in return for their silence, and not a single priest has been defrocked or removed, he said. Nicky Davis, 50, from Australia, another member of SNAP and a former victim, said: “All of us here were abused because John Paul II chose not to act in the way that the Vatican claims he acted. We don’t believe it’s saintly behaviour to allow sex abuse to continue for a 27-year reign. He could have used his enormous power to save children but instead he decided to save the reputation of the Church.” Miguel Hurtado, 32, from Spain, said: “Many people feel very alone and isolated because the man who could have prevented their abuse is being made a saint.” Victims’ groups are also highly critical of Pope Francis, saying that he has taken no tangible steps during his 13-month papacy to crack down on abusive clergy, instead simply forming a committee to address the issue. In an interview in March which prompted outrage from survivors of sexual abuse, he claimed that “no one else has done more” than the Catholic Church to root out paedophilia. The Church was “perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility,” he told Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper. “Yet the Church is the only one to have been attacked.” Mrs Blaine said: “Francis is cleaning up the Vatican bureaucracy and demoting bishops who live in luxurious mansions but he has taken no action to protect children. Sexual predators remain in the Church today. Rather than turn them over to the police, and release the Vatican’s documents on predators priests, he has just set up a commission.”
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