Vatican panel tackles sex abuse issues

By Philip Pullella
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
February 8, 2015

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2015/02/08/Vatican-panel-tackles-sex-abuse-issues/stories/201502080156

VATICAN CITY — A commission advising Pope Francis on how to root out sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church is studying sanctions for bishops suspected of cover-ups or of failing to prevent abuse, members said Saturday.

“There have to be consequences,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, the head of the commission, told a news conference.

Victims groups have been urging the Vatican for years to make bishops more accountable for abuse in their dioceses even if they were not directly responsible for it.

Cardinal O’Malley said the commission, holding its first full meeting since it was established last year, was drafting recommendations for the pope on how to make bishops more accountable, including possible sanctions.

“We think we have come up with some practical recommendations,” he said, without giving details but adding that they would “hopefully be implemented.” Under current church law only the pope can dismiss a bishop.

On Thursday, Pope Francis ordered bishops the world over to cooperate as a matter of priority with the commission to root out “the scourge” of the sexual abuse even if it unearths new scandals.

“There have been far too many cover-ups. There have been far too many clergy protected, moved from place to place — this has got to be consigned to history very, very quickly,” said commission member Peter Saunders, a British victim of clergy abuse.

Both he and another member, Marie Collins of Ireland, also a victim of clergy abuse, said they would resign unless something was done to make bishops accountable.

However, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which has long campaigned for bishops to be held accountable, called Cardinal O’Malley's comments “insulting and deceptive” to victims and demanded immediate action.

“O’Malley knows that the church has plenty of ways, right now, to respond when bishops are complicit in clergy sex crimes and cover ups. The pope can oust them,” the U.S.-based group said in a statement.

Mr. Saunders also criticized Pope Francis on Saturday for appearing to endorse parents who spanked their children.

“Children don't need to be hit. We need to talk about positive parenting … physical violence has no part in modern-day child upbringing,” Mr. Saunders said.

“I was hit throughout my childhood and it did me a lot of harm,” said Mr. Saunders, who was abused by a priest when he was a teenager.

During a talk on fatherhood at his general audience last Wednesday, Pope Francis departed from his prepared text to recount a conversation he once had with a father at a family encounter.

He quoted the man as telling him: “I sometimes have to hit the children a bit but I never slap them in the face so as not to demoralize them.” The pope then added in his own words: “How beautiful! He has a sense of dignity. He must punish. He does it in the right way and then moves on.”

The pope came under heavy criticism in social media for the comments.

Speaking at a news conference on the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis, Mr. Saunders said he was taken aback when he heard about what he called “the apparent endorsement of hitting children.” He added that he planned to talk to the pope about it when they next met.

Earlier on Saturday, Pope Francis condemned female mutilation and domestic violence against women, calling them degradations that had to be combated.

“The many forms of slavery, the commercialization, and mutilation of the bodies of women, call out to us to be committed to defeat these types of degradation that reduce them to mere objects that are bought and sold …,” he told a meeting on women's issues hosted by the Vatican's Council for Culture.

According to the United Nations, more than 140 million girls and women have undergone some form of Female Genital Mutilation around the world, mostly in Africa and the Middle East.

He also denounced domestic violence against women.

The pope recently met with an Italian woman who underwent many operations after her boyfriend threw acid in her face to punish her because she wanted to leave him.