UNITED STATES
NPR
April 9, 2016
Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday
As the church works through its sex-abuse crisis, the Vatican is struggling to figure out how to hold cardinals and bishops accountable, investigative journalist Jason Berry tells NPR’s Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Yesterday, Pope Francis released his Amoris Laetitia proclamation on family life. He calls on priests to support their parishioners, including those who are divorced, gay or pregnant out of wedlock, and to love rather than judge them. But the pope stopped short of actually endorsing same-sex marriage. The document lands on a Catholic church that is still working through its abuse crisis.
Earlier this month, another cover-up in western Pennsylvania’s Altoona Johnstown Diocese received attention. Jason Berry is an investigative journalist who has covered the church crisis. He joins us now. Mr. Berry, thanks so much for being with us.
JASON BERRY, BYLINE: My pleasure.
SIMON: And help us understand, please, what happened in Altoona.
BERRY: Well, it was a grand jury report. And what it found was the long reach of a cover-up going back many decades. You know, the rooted problem of this crisis is structural mendacity, institutionalized deception and lying. And bishops, in depositions over the years, have often said that they were doing this to protect the church, for the good of the church. But in fact, it leaves the victims, the children, on the short end of a moral calibration. And to this day, the Vatican is still struggling to figure out a way to hold bishops accountable.
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