Shocked by girl’s slaying, pope decries pedophilia but rules out French cardinal’s ouster for keeping quiet

Japan Times
May 17, 2016

http://goo.gl/qkZk1G

Pope Francis delivers a speech during the opening session of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) at the Vatican on Monday. Photo by SSERVATORE ROMANO

VATICAN, CITY/PARIS – Pope Francis called for “severe punishment” for pedophiles on Sunday after new details emerged in Italy of the 2014 death of a 6-year-old girl who is alleged to have been thrown from an eighth-story balcony by her abuser.

“This is a tragedy. We should not tolerate the abuse of minors,” Francis said, departing from prepared remarks at his weekly Sunday message and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“We must protect minors and severely punish abusers,” he said.

Though the Catholic Church itself has been rocked by its own abuse scandals, he did not mention them on Sunday as he has in the past.

Italians have been shocked as details emerged in the case of 6-year-old Fortuna who died in June 2014 after a fall from an eighth-story balcony in Naples.

After reopening the case, police charged a 43-year-old man with having thrown the girl to her death in a housing block in a rough area of the city after raping her. Police said they suspected he killed her so she would not talk.

The man, who has also been accused of molesting other children and is now in prison in Rome, has denied the charges.

On Saturday Italian President Sergio Mattarella called for an “ample, rapid and severe” judicial process concerning the case, which has dominated newspapers’ front pages for days.

Child abuse by priests has plagued the Roman Catholic Church itself for decades.

While some cases of sexual abuse in the Church were exposed piecemeal, such as in Louisiana in the 1980s, the scandal exploded in 2002, when it was discovered that U.S. bishops in the Boston area moved abusers from parish to parish instead of defrocking them.

Similar scandals have since broke around the world and tens of millions of dollars have been paid in compensation.

While the pope has vowed “zero tolerance” for abusers in the Church, victims groups have accused him of not doing enough. They say he should do much more to make bishops more accountable for covering up abuse or not preventing it.

A commission he set up to advise him on how to root out abuse in the Church has struggled to find its stride.

In February, Peter Saunders of Britain, a prominent and outspoken member, was forced to take a leave of absence from the group after being fiercely critical of the Vatican’s handling of abuse scandals.

In March, Cardinal George Pell, under fire for his handling of sexual abuse of children by priests in Australia decades ago, gave four days of evidence to an Australian government commission, which again put the Church’s problem with abuse on the world stage.

Pope Francis meanwhile has ruled out seeking the fast-track resignation of a French cardinal accused of failing to inform the authorities about an alleged pedophile priest, the French newspaper La Croix reported on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Catholic daily on Monday, the pope said it would be “contradictory, imprudent” to seek Cardinal Philippe Barbarin’s resignation at this stage.

“We will see after the end of (any) trial. But (to seek his resignation) now would be to imply guilt,” the pontiff said.

Francis said he believed Barbarin had “taken the necessary measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary. We should now wait for the outcome of the civilian judicial procedure.”

Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, France’s second-largest city, is facing a storm over his handling of allegations against Father Bernard Preynat, accused of sex attacks on four boy scouts between 1986 and 1991.

Preynat was placed under formal investigation in January, but his lawyer argues the alleged crimes are now beyond the statute of limitations.

In March, prosecutors in Lyon ordered a preliminary investigation into three accusations by civilian plaintiffs that Barbarin’s diocese knew about the abuses a number of years ago but failed to inform the authorities.

According to the diocese, Barbarin first received testimony from an alleged victim in mid-2014, and relieved Preynat of priestly office in May 2015.

An association called La Parole Liberee (The Liberated Word) says it has identified between 50 and 60 victims.

In other comments he made to La Croix, the pope floated the idea of visiting France, but said he was unable to say when it would take place.

“Last year, some suggestions started to be made about a trip of this kind, comprising a stop in Paris and its suburbs, in Lourdes and in a city where no pope has been, Marseille for example, which represents a gate that is open to the world,” Francis said.

“I recently received an invitation from President Francois Hollande. The episcopal conference also invited me,” he said, adding, “I don’t know when this trip will take place, because next year is an election year in France, and generally the Holy See’s practice is not to travel (to a country) in this time.”

He described France as “the oldest daughter of the church but not the most faithful!”

That was a reference to a traditional honorific to mark France for its centuries-long support of the Catholic church.

That position has waned as France has become emphatically secular, for instance by enshrining into law the rights to gay marriage, contraception and abortion and curbing public display of religious symbols.

France is “a land of great saints and great thinkers,” Francis said, before adding: “The slight criticism that I say with regard to France (…) is that securalism is being overdone.”