SNAP Update: Pope Francis Doesn’t Offer Real Reform on Sex Abuse During His Trip to U.S.

By David Clohessy
Hamiltand GriffRights
October 05, 2015

http://hamilton-griffin.com/snap-update-pope-francis-doesnt-offer-real-reform-on-sex-abuse-during-his-trip-to-u-s/

Pope Francis’ first-ever US trip is over. From the perspective of survivors, how was it? Troubling, to say the least.

In his first comments on US soil about the Catholic church’s clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis, Francis made virtually no mention of victims, offered no apology and praised US bishops for how they’re handling it. He refused to tell or even ask bishops to do anything more about the scandal than they’re already doing.

Within hours, the Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter opined that the pope’s “sadly disappointing” message was “a glaring oversight” with just one “oblique” reference to the crisis that “puts him back to square one.”

“At the very least,” wrote NCR editor Dennis Coday, Francis “could have used the words ‘clergy sexual abuse of minors’” and his decision to “praise bishops for the courage they have shown, before acknowledging the pain of the victims, will undoubtedly raise the charges of “he just doesn’t get it.”

Some were shocked by what they called these tone-deaf remarks by an otherwise media-savvy pontiff. They shouldn’t be. Even the most carefully-scripted leader sometimes lapses and shows his true colors.

This is, after all, the same pope who refused to meet with victims during the entire time he headed the Buenos Aires archdiocese.

He is the same pope who, hours after taking office, visited the Rome cathedral headed by the “poster boy” of bad bishops, Cardinal Bernard Law, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts (the archdiocese from which he resigned in 2002).

He is the same pope who, as Vatican officials were being grilled about abuse cover ups by a United Nations panel in Geneva, held a private meeting with disgraced Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, a prelate so corrupt that his successor denied him the right to exercise public ministry in his own archdiocese.

He is the same pope who, just last year, said “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have moved with transparency and accountability.” He made this claim shortly after refusing to extradite an accused predatory archbishop in the Dominican Republic to secular authorities and to provide data to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In that same interview, Francis went further, arguing that he and his bishops were being victimized: “No one else has done more. Yet the Church is the only one to be attacked.”

Make no mistake about it: Francis has been bold, even innovative, when it comes to reforming church governance, improving church finances and boosting church morale. His gentle, humble and down-to-earth demeanor has inspired millions. His plea to remember and reach out to the poor and marginalized has refocused millions on core Gospel values so often piously mouthed in churches but so often overlooked in real life.

Yet his refusal to chart a new course in this continuing crisis is disturbing. He had another terrific opportunity to do so when he came to the US. But he didn’t.

On his US trip, in New York, Francis addressed the crisis a second time. This time, his audience was a group of nuns and priests. Again, the clerics were Francis’ main concern.

“I know that you suffered greatly. . .by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members,” he said.

Finally, on his last day in the US, he spent 30 minutes with five people – two or three clergy sex abuse victims, the others victims of non-clergy predators. His remarks after that meeting were more sensitive.

But to some, however, it was “too little, too late.” To others, it was just more words. And words – whether clearer or stronger or whatever – don’t protect those who suffer from child sex crimes, don’t expose those who commit child sex crimes and don’t deter those who conceal child sex crimes.

Only action makes a difference, as the NCR’s Coday rightly points out. His blog ended with a clarion call: “Francis will need to show some deliberate, dramatic action to prove that he understands the gravity of this problem. After he shows he understands it, he will then have to prove that he will do something about it.”

At the risk of sounding cynical, we believe the pope “gets it.” He’s very smart. He understands this scandal and what must happen to fix and stop it.

But sadly, like his predecessors, he seems really incapable of showing the courage to tackle the crisis head on and demand the real reforms that will protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, expose the truth and end the cover ups. His trip to the US confirms this dismal diagnosis.