ROME (ITALY)
Crux
February 25, 2019
By Charles Collins
After the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences and Eastern Churches listened to four days of talks on the effects of sex abuse, it can now be said that no Church leader can claim that the issue isn’t a problem in their neck of the woods.
This is probably the most significant achievement of the unprecedented Feb. 21-24 Vatican summit on the topic which has been plaguing the Catholic Church for decades.
Yet there is a sense that for this giant step forward, there has also been a significant step backward: “Zero tolerance” – a buzzword since the scandal exploded in Boston in 2002 – no longer means priests who abuse minors will be defrocked even after one incident of abuse.
This policy was stated in its most succinct form by St. John Paul II, when he called every U.S. cardinal to the Vatican in April 2002 in the fallout of the revelations of abuse and cover-up exposed in the Boston Globe that year: “People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.”
This is in contrast to removal from active ministry, when a priest does not have a pastoral assignment – and often is told not to even present himself as a priest in public – but is still, technically, a cleric.
In the countries hardest hit by the sexual abuse crisis in the late 20th century – including the United States and Ireland – the families of victims were told an abusing priest was going to be removed from ministry, only later to find out he was serving as a priest in another location.
This is why most victims support groups – including the Ending Clergy Abuse advocacy group, which had a large contingent in Rome – have insisted abusive priests should be removed from the priesthood.
From the beginning of the meeting, the Vatican showed it was resisting this policy.
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