We Need Actions from Pope Francis, Not Words, to Put End to Worldwide Clerical Abuse

By Ian Elliott
Belfast Telegraph
July 17, 2014

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/debateni/blogs/we-need-actions-from-pope-francis-not-words-to-put-end-to-worldwide-clerical-abuse-30437379.html

Pope Francis

Pope Francis has recently been quoted as saying that "2%" – that is, one in 50 – of the Catholic Church's clergy is a paedophile involved in child-abuse cases.

This information has often been requested previously, but has never been provided by the Catholic Church.

For this reason I was shocked to see a figure being quoted by Pope Francis and the question immediately arose in my mind as to how he calculated it?

Previous experiences for me have taught me to be very wary of opinion stated as fact. This frequently happens when leading churchmen express their views about clerical abuse, but present them as if they were facts.

I recall the public statement made by Cardinal Pell in Australia, when the Government there announced the setting up of a Royal Commission to examine institutional abuse in that country.

His confidence in the way allegations had been handled in the Australian Church has been shown to be badly misplaced.

Similarly, I can recall statements made by leading clerics in Ireland that all allegations of clerical abuse known to their Church body had been reported to the State authorities when, in reality, this was far from the case.

If they had preceded their statements with the phrase "It is my belief", or "I have been informed that", this would have been recognised for what it was: guesstimation.

The point that I am seeking to make is that we need to distinguish between fact and opinion.

It is acceptable for someone to express a view which may (or may not) be shown to be supported by the evidence when that is fully examined. But it is quite different to present it as if it were fact.

If a statement as significant as the known rate of clerical abuse in the Catholic Church is being made, then the very least that it should be accompanied by is reference to the specific data, or evidence, that it is based upon.

For this statement by Pope Francis to be given any credence then, you have to accept that he is aware of the true incidence of clerical abuse on a worldwide basis. For me, this immediately begs the question as to how he has gained this knowledge.