Pope Sidestepping Sexual Abuse in US Catholic Church: Activist

Press TV
September 24, 2015

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/09/24/430604/us-sex-abuse-pope-sidestep

Pope Francis is sidestepping the widespread sexual abuse committed by Christian priests in the US Catholic Church, as he visits the United States for the first time, a writer and activist in Boston says.

The pope’s remarks to US bishops in Washington on Wednesday praising their response to the sex scandal while failing to mention the words sexual abuse is “extremely disappointing for the victims of clergy sex abuse,” said Daniel Patrick Welch.

“The pope is more or less sidestepping what is the biggest issue for American Catholics in the last 50 years; it dwarfs everything else,” Welch told Press TV on Thursday.

“It’s not a scandal of course, it’s a crime, it’s a huge crime and the cover up is also a crime,” he added.

Allegations of sexual abuse by the Christian clergy go back decades, but exploded into a full-blown crisis in 2002 when US media revealed widespread abuse and cover-ups by bishops.

A group representing victims of priest sexual abuse blasted the pope’s remarks and said his brief remarks were a setback for justice and healing.

Francis, 78, referred to the crisis indirectly, telling the bishops he was "conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice."

"What sacrifice?" said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, the president of Survivor's Network of Those Abused by Priests.

"His remarks today confirm what we’ve long said and suspected: this pope, like his predecessors, is doing and will do little if anything to bring real reform to this continuing crisis," Blaine said.

Approximately 6,900 US Roman Catholic priests were accused of sexual abuse with at least 16,900 young victims between 1950 and 2011, according to data from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

John Salveson, a sex abuse victim in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said the pope's comments were "both insulting and hurtful to survivors of clergy abuse."

"In reality, the Roman Catholic Church in America has treated clergy sex abuse victims as adversaries and enemies for decades," said Salveson, president of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse.