WASHINGTON (DC)
National Public Radio
February 20, 2019
By Tom Gjelten
Never in the history of the Roman Catholic Church has a pope ordered bishops from around the world to come together and consider how many priests abuse children sexually and how many church officials cover for the abusers. The scandal of clergy sex abuse has deep roots in church history, but church leaders have been notoriously reluctant to acknowledge it and deal with the consequences.
Not surprisingly, when Pope Francis summoned more than 100 bishops to a meeting in Rome to address the “Protection of Minors in the Church,” the announcement raised expectations that it could mark a turning point in the Church’s lagging response to the ongoing clergy abuse crisis. The three-day meeting begins Thursday.
In the weeks that followed the Pope’s announcement, however, U.S. Catholics in particular have become disappointed over his characterization of the summit as a gathering that will merely feature “prayer and discernment,” hardly an ambitious vision for what could have been a momentous event.
“That offers little solace to American Catholics who feel their own church is in need of reform,” says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. “I think the bold moves that a lot of people are going to want to see are very unlikely to happen.”
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