UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
As Pope Arrives: “Until Francis Gets the House in Order on the Matter of Sexual Abuse of Clergy, All the Other Pastoral and Charitable Efforts of Our Church Are Like Sandcastles”
Two simple (but are they simple?) reminders this morning about the abuse situation in the Catholic church, and the imperative need of Catholic pastoral leaders to address it — from the highest level of church governance:
Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger at her Canonical Consultation blog:
Until Francis gets the house in order on the matter of sexual abuse of clergy, all the other pastoral and charitable efforts of our Church are like sandcastles, destined to be washed away by the next big tide.
Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability in yesterday’s Boston Globe:
The Vatican’s continued laxness toward abusive priests is playing out tragically around the world today — especially in countries with weak reporting laws. That’s because another church law helps the priest’s identity stay secret: Church officials need not report child abuse unless local secular law requires it.
The result is that Catholic officials in many countries still give second chances to child molesters, with the Vatican’s permission.
As David Clohessy of SNAP notes in a media statement last week, a year-long investigation by Global Post finds a “dangerous and disingenuous pattern” on the part of Catholic officials in some areas of the world including the United States to permit abusive priests to be spirited away to Latin America, where they continue in ministry and continue having contact with children, while the parishes in which they minister have no knowledge of their past.
I particularly appreciate Jennifer Haselberger’s use of the gospel image about the folly of building a house on sand. Her blog posting builds a compelling case for her conclusion that, until Francis gets the house in order on the matter of sexual abuse of clergy, all other pastoral and charitable efforts of the church are like sandcastles facing the inevitable tide. As she notes, if Francis were, by chance brought to the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis for an on-the-ground visit, he’d see all sorts of signs that the structures of that local church are seemingly built on an exceptionally unstable foundation:
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.