Pope Francis pledges to hold bishops accountable if they protected abusers

By Frances D'emilio
NorthJersey.com
July 07, 2014

http://www.northjersey.com/news/pope-francis-pledges-to-hold-bishops-accountable-if-they-protected-abusers-1.1047194

Pope Francis celebrates the Angelus noon prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's square, at the Vatican, Sunday, July 6, 2014.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday in his first meeting with Catholics sexually abused by members of the clergy and went further than any of his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

Abuse victims and their advocates have long demanded that higher-ups be made to answer for the decades-long coverups of rape and molestation of youngsters in a scandal that has rocked the church and dismayed its worldwide flock of 1.2 billion.

The pope celebrated a private Mass with six victims — two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany — at his Vatican residence, and spent the rest of the morning listening to their accounts, meeting with each person individually.

“Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you,” Pope Francis said. “And I humbly ask forgiveness.”

“I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves,” the pope said. “This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused, and it endangered other minors who were at risk.”

But in speaking of accountability, he made no mention of what countless victims and their families around the globe have waited years to hear: whether bishops and other prelates who shuffled child-molesting priests from parish to parish or didn’t inform police and prosecutors would be fired or demoted.

“All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable,” Pope Francis said, delivering his homily in his native Spanish. The survivors were allowed to bring a relative or friend and an interpreter.

The U.S.-based victims group SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, reacted skeptically.

“We are glad the pope promises to ‘hold accountable’ Catholic officials who conceal abuse,” SNAP Director David Clohessy said in statement. “But he hasn’t done it yet, not in Rome, nor in Buenos Aires. Saying and doing are different things. The first is easy, the second is hard.”

Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of another victims advocacy group, BishopAccountability.org, said the pope’s meeting with the three men and three women was a positive step.

“The pope made a significant and historic promise to discipline bishops who fail to respond adequately to child sexual abuse,” she said.

Robert Hoatson, a former New­ark priest who founded Road to Recovery, an advocacy group of clergy sexual abuse victims, agreed that Pope Francis had made a significant gesture, but said he needed to go beyond statements by doing something about the problem of abusive priests.

“SNAP has called it a public relations stunt — I think it’s more in depth than that, I think the man is trying,” Hoatson said. “But action is key, he’s got to stop asking for forgiveness. Victims are not going to forgive until they see action.”

Hoatson called on Pope Francis to “get rid of” Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, who has been accused of protecting accused pedophile clerics, like the Rev. Michael Fugee; and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was convicted of a misdemeanor related to the coverup of a sex crime. Hoatson also said the pope should rescind the appointment of Edgar Moreira da Cunha, the Newark bishop appointed last week to head the diocese of Fall River, Mass.

“More needs to be done,” said Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of SNAP, who describes himself as a victim of clergy abuse. “He’s not the first pope to do this, to apologize, to meet with survivors. We’ve heard this many times before. What matters most is actions.”

Sam Rivera, who has said he was abused as an altar boy in the Newark Archdiocese, said: “I don’t think it’s enough. The pope should have the archbishops meet with the abuse victims. What the pope did is at least a start, but we need an apology from the archbishop of Newark.”

Asked if he thought Myers, the Newark archbishop, should be relieved of his duties, Rivera replied: “Definitely. In our case, he was not there to support the victims of abuse, he was not there with us. And now, to get a lavish home with all those improvements, it’s a slap in the face to abuse victims.”

One of the six victims who met with Pope Francis, Marie Kane, 43, who was abused by a priest for three years while a teenager in Ireland, said she asked the pope to remove an Irish cardinal, Sean Brady, from his post because of how he handled abuse allegations.

Kane told The Irish Times that she told the pope a “coverup is still happening, and you have the power to make these changes.” She quoted him as replying, “It was difficult to make these changes.”

When Brady turns 75 next month, he will be required to offer his resignation to the pontiff, who can accept or ask him to stay on.

Pope Francis has also been criticized for how he handled abuse cases when archbishop of Buenos Aires, specifically for not meeting with victims and for denying he had handled the case of an abusive priest.

Many faithful, especially in the U.S., were outraged when Boston Archbishop Bernard Law, accused of shielding abusive priests during his tenure, was given a prestigious post at a Rome basilica in 2004 by Pope John Paul II instead of being demoted.

Pope Francis acknowledged that the abuse drove some victims to addiction and even suicide and said the deaths “weigh upon the heart and my conscience and that of the whole church.”

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the six first met with the pope on Sunday during dinner at the Vatican.

Pope Francis had probably already met another sex abuse survivor, Marie Collins, an Irish woman serving on a commission he created to help draw up a strategy against sex abuse.

A spokesman for German victims, Norbert Denef, dismissed Monday’s meeting as “nothing more than a PR event.” Several meetings that Pope Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI held with victims starting in 2008 generated similar reactions.