UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal
May 27, 2014
Grant Gallicho
During a press conference on the return flight from the Holy Land yesterday, Pope Francis did that thing he does: he made some news. The pope revealed that he would soon meet with abuse victims, promising to “move forward on this issue with zero tolerance”–and he announced that three bishops were “under investigation.” One of them “has already been found guilty, and we are now considering the penalty to be imposed.” He didn’t name the bishops, nor did he elaborate on the details of their cases.
Naturally, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests was not impressed. “Francis made three meaningless abuse comments today,” according to Joelle Casteix, western regional director of SNAP. “None of them are significant in any way. All are disappointing because they amount to more public relations instead of real action.” SNAP’s executive director, David Clohessy, echoed that sentiment in his comment to the Boston Globe: “This means nothing,” he said. Francis’s remarks are just “another savvy public-relations move that will protect no kids, expose no predators, prevent no cover-ups, and punish no enablers.’’
Really? I understand that SNAP must ritually denounce anything a bishop has to say about the sexual-abuse crisis. But isn’t this what SNAP wants? To see bishops held accountable for their failures to protect kids from abusive clerics? Did Clohessy absorb what Francis actually said? The pope explained that three bishops are being investigated, that one of them has already been found guilty, and that the Vatican is figuring out what sort of punishment to mete out. This is anything but meaningless. Because, as everyone at SNAP knows, there aren’t many bishops who have been convicted of a crime during this long scandal.
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