VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
La Croix International [Montrouge Cedex, France]
May 23, 2024
By Massimo Faggioli
Signs of the times. The Durham University report on abuse, released April 30 after a four-year study, highlights the importance of listening to abuse survivors in restoring trust and changing Catholic culture.
In a “listening Church” that tries to be synodal, it is interesting to see the kind of speakers that are placed in front of young Catholics to deliver a “commencement speech” at graduation ceremonies in Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. The controversial speech delivered on May 11 by a famous football player and traditionalist Catholic, Harrison Butker, to the class of 2024 at Benedictine College in Kansas is just one example of the bizarre situation in which the U.S. Catholic Church finds itself.
I followed the reactions to that commencement speech the same week I read “The Cross of the Moment. A Report from the Boundary Breaking Project,” the final report of the Center for Catholic Studies at Durham University in the United Kingdom. The 194-page-long report, released on April 30, is a four-year study that listened to the voices of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse across the Catholic community. It is one of the major milestones in the research on the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church (in this case, England and Wales) and is centered on the key function of listening to deal with the phenomenon of sexual abuse: listening to survivors, listening to the local Church, and listening to religious communities. The act of listening is necessary for what the report calls “the possibilities of redemption” with three specific pathways: restorative approaches; conversation and listening in parish communities, and different choices in building our common life. It points to paths to restore trust and change Catholic culture. It provides examples of the possibility of redemptive paths, such as, the work of the charity LOUDfence.
Listening to victims and survivors
The Durham University report comes at an important moment in the history of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. During the Synod on Synodality that began in 2021, the theme of abuse, particularly related to clericalism, has emerged in discussions. However, it remains uncertain how much structural reform will result from the second assembly of the Synod in October 2024. But there is a link between synodality and the theme of listening to victims and survivors for a Church on the path to reform. In a recent interview, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, director of the Rome-based Insitute of Anthropology – Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors between 2014 and 2023, said: “The encounter with victims and survivors of abuse and with the resistance in the Church and in society to deal with the phenomenon of abuse has changed me”. He also added: “To many in the Church — and not just Church leaders — it is not clear yet that marginal corrections are simply not enough [to deal with the phenomenon of abuse].” Further reading: Synodality and the abuse crisis: The Church is still stuck in Trent
The Durham University report also points to the necessary connection between the option of listening to victims and survivors and the institutional dimension of the Church in the Vatican: “Although Pope Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) as a body within papal structures through which survivors advised the pope and Holy See, that body has experienced many difficulties and resignations. This research has not explicitly focused on the role of the Holy See, but neither can the context of the Catholic Church in England and Wales be separated from what happens there.”
“The Cross of the Moment” comes at a momentous time. Besides the Synod, something important could happen soon in Rome for the Catholic Church regarding the phenomenon of abuse. On June 29 the president of the PCPM, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, turns 80, meaning that he reaches the mandatory retirement age. This could give Pope Francis the opportunity to reshape the leadership of the commission with another president, who might not be a cardinal. This would reframe the relationship between the PCPM and the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith now led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. The 2022 apostolic constitution of reform of the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, put the PCPM within the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. This means that in the past two years there has been a kind of diarchy — with two cardinals, O’Malley and Fernandez, visibly and jointly in charge, at least “politically” in the Vatican’s efforts on the abuse crisis front.
“Delicate appointment”
If the next president of the PCPM is not a cardinal, this would put more responsibility on Cardinal Fernandez. In a July 1, 2023 social media post, Cardinal Fernandez said he had initially declined the appointment because he did not feel qualified to handle the abuse crisis. In his unusual letter of appointment, also dated July 1, 2023, Francis wrote to Fernandez: “Given that for disciplinary matters — especially related to the abuse of minors — a specific Section has recently been created with very competent professionals, I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment more directly to the main purpose of the Dicastery which is ‘keeping the faith’.”Further reading: Pope Francis’ efforts to deal with the clergy sex abuse crisis need corrections
It is unlikely that Cardinal O’Malley’s departure will make Pope Francis reverse the choice made with Praedicate Evangelium, that is, to put the PCPM in the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, where probably it should have been. Some experts had already recommended this during the drafting of the apostolic constitution.
However, it is clear that regardless of who succeeds Cardinal O’Malley in Boston and as PCPM president, his departure marks the end of an era in the global history of the abuse crisis. Cardinal O’Malley, appointed in 2003 following the Boston Globe “Spotlight” investigation, was also the first president of the pontifical commission created by Pope Francis in 2014. His retirement creates the conditions for what will be one of the most delicate appointments in Francis’ pontificate.
Massimo Faggioli @MassimoFaggioli
[Further reading: The clergy sex abuse crisis and the Vatican’s legitimacy on the global stage]