WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
By Terrence McCoy, Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Perry Stein September 23
Advocates for victims of sexual abuse called Pope Francis’s apparent praise of the U.S. church’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal “a slap in the face” that will only inflame the suffering of the abused.
At the Cathedral of St. Matthews, before a gathering of U.S. bishops, Francis lauded the American church on Wednesday for its “courage” in the face of what he called “self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.” Calling instances of abuse “crimes,” he added: “I realize how much pain the recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims.”
Advocates expressed outrage and surprise at these comments, which address a scandal that exploded in the early 2000s. Activists have consistently criticized U.S. Catholic Church, which has spent millions on prevention and training, for continuing to fight survivors in legal battles and declining to hold some bishops explicitly accountable. In 2012, Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia, where Francis will end his trip, became the first priest to be convicted on charges of concealing the crimes of accused priests.
This isn’t the first time Francis has waded into an issue that some have cited as a reason why they left the church. Francis embraced victims of sexual abuse and asked their forgiveness at a 2013 Mass “for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse.” Then in June, he launched a Vatican tribunal to punish clergy who try to cover up instances of abuse. He has also created commission that recommends how best to help survivors.
Many activists were hopeful that Francis would add to that momentum during his first visit to the United States, though his official itinerary bore no mention of the topic. But now, some advocates say, Francis has tampered hopes that he’ll push for more accountability among the clergy and opened the church to fresh criticism that it’s more concerned with protecting its own than victims of abuse.
“It’s encouraging that he recognizes [the abuse], but it sounds like it is all aimed at the bishops themselves rather than the survivors,” said Bill Casey, who advocates for survivors with Voice of the Faithful. “If that’s all he says, I think that would be disappointing.”
But Barbara Dorris, victims outreach director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said she was more than disappointed. “I don’t have much of a temper, very little temper, and this makes me mad,” she said. “It’s a slap in the face to all the victims, that we’re going to worry about how the poor bishop feels? You’re the ones who created it, and now we’re going to feel sorry for what you created?”
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who advises dioceses worldwide on child protection, said he was nonetheless “pleased” that Francis had mentioned instances of sexual abuse so early in his visit — and that he called them crimes.
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