Pope pledges vigilance against clergy sex-abuse, but victims' groups are unsatisifed

By Marina Villeneuve
Record
September 27, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/news/pope-pledges-vigilance-against-clergy-sex-abuse-but-victims-groups-are-unsatisifed-1.1419869

Pope Francis, center, addresses a gathering in Saint Martin's Chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, in Wynnewood, Pa.

Pope Francis on Sunday made his strongest statement yet on clergy sex abuse, vowing to hold “all those responsible” accountable, but his words fell short of expectations for victims’ advocates, who say he still has taken no decisive steps to punish church leaders who covered up child abuse by priests.

In a week in which Francis seemed to burnish his image as a reformer with bold statements about climate change, immigrants, and the poor, his vows to demand accountability of bishops and justice for pedophiles came across to victims’ advocates like the company line.

Minutes after privately apologizing to five survivors of priest sexual abuse on Sunday morning, Francis veered off script and promised a crowd of Catholic bishops and seminarians that he would hold accountable clergy members who sexually abuse children.“I am profoundly sorry. God weeps,” he said. “The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret,” the pontiff said in Spanish to an audience in St. Martin’s Chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary outside Philadelphia. “I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.”Two survivors of clergy sexual abuse who staged protests around the pope’s visit said Sunday they were disappointed by his remarks. Both leaders in the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, Barbara Dorris and Becky Ianni said Francis has had 2½ years to hold accountable the bishops in the U.S. who covered up abuse in their dioceses, but he has not acted. Francis pledged this summer to create a tribunal to investigate bishops, as advocates have previously pushed for.

Dorris noted Pope Francis has removed men complicit in a recent financial scandal at Vatican. “He is capable of courageous action, and publicly holding accountable people who break the rules,” she said. “What we haven’t seen him do is do the same thing to church officials who hide clergy sex crimes.”

Ianni, director of the Washington, D.C., and Virginia chapters of SNAP, said the pope’s comments Sunday seemed to be a response to a negative reaction to his remarks last week, in which he said bishops confronted the crisis with “courage” and focused on their hardship.

Ianni said rather than ordering more church internal investigations, Francis should let law enforcement conduct inquiries into the matter.

“What we need for the pope to do is to turn over all the Vatican records and insist the bishops turn over the records on abuse to the secular authorities whose job it is to investigate them,” she said.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that for an hour Sunday morning, Pope Francis met with five adults — three women and two men — who were sexually abused as children by members of clergy, family members or teachers.

The pope prayed with each person and one by one, listened to their stories, according to information provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops’ conference said Francis felt “pain and shame,” particularly for those hurt by clergy or church workers, and that the pontiff renewed his commitment to making sure victims are heard and helped, that the guilty are punished and that crimes of abuse are prevented in the Roman Catholic Church.

In remarks at St. Martin’s Chapel, Pope Francis said that survivors of sexual abuse have grown up to become “true heralds of hope and ministers of mercy.”

He praised their “immense courage to shine the light of Christ on the evil of the sexual abuse of children.”

“I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm,” he said.

The pope’s remarks follow criticism by groups advocating for abuse victims who have long voiced frustration with the Catholic Church’s slowness or failure to remove clerics suspected of abusing children, as well as for denying for years that there was sex abuse.

During Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, SNAP released statements deploring his “vague and brief references to the ongoing abuse and cover-up crisis.”

“He talks and acts like the church hierarchy is the real victim in this crisis,” the group said in a statement, pointing to media coverage of the pope’s remarks to nuns and clergy members earlier in the week.

David Clohessy, SNAP’s director, said Sunday the pope has raised victim advocates’ expectations for him because of his “genuine reform” on a number of issues in the church, but added that he continues to be disappointing on the matter of sex abuse because he has yet to focus on allegations of bishops covering up crimes.

“He could meet with a thousand victims,” Clohessy said in an earlier statement Sunday. “But that wouldn’t safeguard a single child.”

This spring, Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, who had remained on the job after becoming the most senior U.S. Catholic official convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse. In July, two bishops in Minnesota resigned after prosecutors accused them of having ignored evidence that a priest was a pedophile.

Since he began his papacy, Francis has met with abuse victims and established a Vatican commission tasked with preparing recommendations for change. This year, he implored the world’s bishops to work with the commission and “take whatever steps are necessary” to protect children from sexual abuse by religious leaders.

In June, Pope Francis approved the creation of a Vatican department to investigate bishops who cover up or fail to prevent sexual abuse.

The pope’s apparently unscripted comments Sunday preceded his prepared remarks about the importance of family.

Using the metaphor of small neighborhood stores that have given way to sprawling supermarkets, Pope Francis said the rise of consumerism and the loss of a sense of community has led to loneliness and fear of commitment among young people.

It is the role of priests, the pope said, to actively support and encourage young people to start families.

“A pastor must show that the ‘Gospel of the family’ is truly ‘good news,’Ÿ” he said.

Adding that Catholics are “not immune to changes in the concrete world,” Francis acknowledged the fervent debate over same-sex marriage. He said that despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S., the church must move away from “explaining doctrine” and instead spread the Catholic faith.

About 300 bishops from countries including the Congo, Ukraine and Canada filled the warmly lit seminary chapel, whose rafters were decorated with brass-colored gold flowers and designs in shades of turquoise and rose.

Also witnessing the remarks were the 146 seminarians, who broke out into joyous claps and smiles when Francis greeted them in the loggia — a long, grand hallway leading to the chapel.

Seminarian Alessandro Giardini of Philadelphia said the Pope’s words fit perfectly into everything else he had said this past week about the importance of family.

Giardini also hoped that his clear message on sexual abuse would help restore trust in the Catholic Church.

“It is important now, especially in America, to have accountability,” said Giardini, a first-year theology graduate student. “To protect children and continue to heal.”