UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
And speaking of the upcoming papal visit to the U.S. (I just did so in my previous posting, didn’t I?), SNAP has published a very valuable Q and A written by David Clohessy, on Pope Francis and the abuse/cover up crisis. I highly recommend this document to you. It does an outstanding job of arguing that the so-called “Francis effect,” in collusion with an adulatory media, give many of us the impression that Pope Francis has done something substantive to address the issue of child abuse by clerics in the Catholic church.
When he has not done so . . . . Not yet, at least.
Here’s an excerpt from the Q and A’s conclusion, in response to the question, What would you like to see Francis do?:
Turn over every document about clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes to law enforcement. Insist that bishops lobby for, not against, secular legislative reforms to protect kids. And quickly, publicly and harshly fire dozens of complicit bishops.
(Note: on 3/7/13, we listed 20 steps Pope Francis should take in this crisis.
Put the phrase “Francis should” – in quotes – in our website search box and find 28 statements outlining what we’d like to see him do.)
With lightning speed, Francis ousted a German bishop who mismanaged church money. But with glacial speed, Francis ignores bishops who endanger children and protect predators.
He’s making major strides in improving church finances, governance, and morale. But he’s posturing on abuse and cover ups. He’s making nearly no meaningful strides to actually prevent abuse and cover ups.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.