UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Francis’s Oblique Comments Today on Abuse Crisis: Open Mouth, Insert Foot — Taking Us Back to Square One
As Jerry Slevin says in a comment here earlier today, Dennis Coday has some pointed things to say after Pope Francis’s address to the bishops when they and he gathered for a prayer service in D.C.’s Cathedral of St. Matthew. In that gathering, Francis told the U.S. bishops,
I am also conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice. Nor have you been afraid to divest whatever is unessential in order to regain the authority and trust which is demanded of ministers of Christ and rightly expected by the faithful. I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.
As Dennis Coday says in response, the oblique reference to the clergy sexual abuse crisis here is more than a foot-in-mouth remark: it’s one that brings the entire discussion of the abuse crisis in the U.S. back to square one, suggesting that Pope Francis doesn’t get it, hasn’t gotten it, doesn’t intend to get it:
Praising the 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.”
Since his election as pope, NCR has both challenged Francis to do more for the sex abuse crisis and encouraged the moves he has made. But the message he delivered today puts him back to square one.
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