Pope’s Child Abuse Commission Crawls, While His Family Synod Slips

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
October 3, 2014

http://christiancatholicism.com/popes-child-abuse-commission-crawls-while-his-family-synod-slips/

Likely facing pressure from worldwide media observers assembled now at the Vatican to report on Family Synod issues, Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s seemingly “do nothing advisory commission on minors” made its latest pitch at trying to appear serious. Now as “chief papal protector of children”, Boston’s O’Malley is supposedly addressing the most important current Catholic family issue — clerical child sexual abuse, that the Family Synod is obscenely ducking, it appears.

Predictably, this “abuse commission”, after ten months (and 19 months of Francis’ papacy”), has not yet even finalized its membership or operating rules or even set up a permanent office. Indeed, its lone abuse survivor member, Marie Collins today (10/6) indicated to AP that she had been frustrated earlier in the year with the slow pace of work on the commission.

AP’s forthright Rome reporter, Nicole Winfield, honestly observed today that, while “Francis’ other expert commissions looking into Vatican finance and administration worked at a frenzied pace through 2014 and finished their projects in recent months, the sex abuse commission never seemed to get off the ground. It lacked organization, a clear mission statement, office space, funding and a full membership roster. …” Would that some other Vatican reporters had some of Winfield’s candor!

Winfield also noted that ” …O”Malley has pledged that the commission will develop “clear and effective protocols” to hold accountable bishops who covered up for abusive priests …” O’Malley seems to have made similar pledges before with little to show for it, it appears.

For the full AP report, please see:

[tbo.com]

As to Pope Francis’ new “papal protector of children”, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the recent National Catholic Reporter (NCR) comments of Jim Jenkins are revealing. Reportedly, Jenkins, a prominent California psychologist with some abuse survivor patients, has battled with Cardinal Levada, beginning a decade ago when Jenkins was on Levada’s San Francisco’s Archdiocesan child protection board.

Jenkins observes at NCR about O’Malley, in pertinent part:

“Hierarchs in the Vatican are only motivated by power and it’s twisted sister, money. This is a typical maneuver by Cardinal Sean O’Malley. He says the pious thing in public but in private, behind the scenes, he makes sure that the fix is in. This is the way that O’Malley has conducted himself ever since he became a bishop – it’s the way he has climbed the clerical ladder. O’Malley is the chief Vatican cleaner-upper who sweeps up after the elephant parade of abusers. … “

For less colorful and more detailed, and documented, information, from Anne Barrett Doyle, the excellent researcher at BishopAccountabillity.org, on Cardinal O’Malley’s poor history on child abuse prevention efforts, please see her “Six Ways Cardinal Sean O’Malley Has Mishandled the Abuse Crisis” at:

[bishop-accountability.org]

To date, after a well publicized announcement ten months ago, O’Malley has had only a few photo ops with Pope Francis and some perfunctory meetings of his inchoate priest child abuse commission, usually timed to deflect negative publicity from UN committee condemnations of the Vatican’s priest child abuse cover-ups and the like.

Disgracefully, the Vatican priest child abuse commission, after its hyped announcement ten months ago (and 19 months after Francis’ election), still does not have in place a full membership, a specific agenda and a basic administrative and organizational infrastructure.

It seems quite clear that Pope Francis is intentionally pursuing effective child protection reform measures very slowly and almost secretly with this new advisory committee (A) headed by Cardinal Law’s successor, Cardinal O’Malley, who is experienced with “handling” abuse investigations confidentially, and (B) assisted now, as top assistant, by Cardinals Law’s, O’Malley’s and Mueller’s predictable and pliable longtime canon lawyer, Fr. Oliver.

For the current “big picture” on the Vatican’s continuing failures here, please see the recent report by Fr. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., the world’s leading expert on curtailing priest child sexual abuse, at:

[christiancatholicism.com]

Pope Francis seems for over a year and a half, to have made as his highest priority, protecting Catholic cardinals and bishops from prosecution, especially related to allegations of child abuse and/or related cover-ups and of financial corruption, (A) by easing out, quietly and with minimal recriminations, controversial hierarchs by comfortable retirements, demotions or transfers (O’Brien, Brady, Tebartz-van Elst (Bling Bishop), Liveries, Burke, Rigali, even Wesolowski so far, et al.), and (B) by trying to co-opt completely all independent government investigations of hierarchs with Vatican controlled and secretive proceedings (especially Archbishop Wesolowski), that conveniently also protect against disclosures about other hierarchs that may have been implicated.

We already saw how the Vatican orchestrates “criminal trials” in the absurd “staged trial” of the ex-Pope’s butler. Wesolowski’s trial should be even more staged and absurd.

The Vatican has no experience with criminal trials of serious crimes like child sex abuse, even if the Vatican were sincere about this, which as a lawyer I doubt they are by trying Wesolowski at “home”.

Archbishop Wesolowski, for example, served in numerous countries over more than three decades and could well have in his computer files child porn related links to other pedophiles in the worldwide hierarchy — who knows, but why did Francis have him smuggled, in effect, back to the Vatican?

And knowing his history, the Vatican reportedly even let Wesolowski walk around Rome seemingly without monitoring. I hope the ex-papal butler was keeping close tabs then on his kids—I would have.

Pope Francis is having a tough week. His Family Synod is also running into a “poor reception”. Once again, psychologist Jim Jenkins has captured the moment in a well received NCR comment today. Jim observed, in pertinent part:

” … Catholic prelates {at the Synod} debating and discussing about marriage is best described as “strangers in a strange land.” They don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Jenkins than added: “Former Irish president Mary McAleese said it best: ‘The very idea of 150 people who have decided they are not going to have any children, not going to have families, not going to be fathers and not going to be spouses – so they have no adult experience of family life as the rest of us know it – but they are going to advise the pope on family life; it is completely bonkers.’ ”

For more on the Family Synod and Francis’s apparent strategies relating to it, please see my remarks at:

[christiancatholicism.com]