ROME (ITALY)
Crux
October 24, 2018
By Christopher White
When Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal envoy to the U.S., accused Pope Francis of mishandling sexual abuse, one of the few conservative Catholic leaders to rally to the pope’s defense was Jim Towey.
Towey, president of Ave Maria University (AMU) in Florida, lamented the “rift” between conservative members of the U.S. hierarchy and Francis, arguing that in this moment, fidelity toward the pope and the Church is needed more than ever. Towey’s stance drew a sharp rebuke from a group of AMU alumni, who accused him of not taking the clergy sexual abuse crisis seriously.
Towey, whose career has spanned from working inside the White House under President George W. Bush as the Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, to nearly two decades in academia, recently announced he would be departing AMU at the end of next academic year.
Now, two months after speaking out on the pope’s behalf, as a further step in what he believes is a crucial time for the Church to finally grasp the scourge of the sexual abuse crisis, he’s telling his own story for the first time.
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