BishopAccountability.org

‘On child abuse, there is no sincerity on Francis’ side’

By Richard Townley
Buenos Aires Herald
February 14, 2016

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/208717/%E2%80%98on-child-abuse-there-is-no-sincerity-on-francis%E2%80%99-side%E2%80%99

Peter Saunders talks during a press conference in Rome, Italy last week.

Sex abuse survivor expresses frustration at Vatican, Francis’ reluctance to tackle child molestation

The Catholic Church has lost “all moral responsibility” for tackling ongoing child abuse by its clergymen, a member of a papal panel appointed to deal with the issue has told the Herald, adding that he feels he has been personally “deceived” by Pope Francis. “The Church is failing in the protection of children”, Peter Saunders said.

Peter Saunders, an outspoken member of Francis’ commission set up to tackle child abuse, was at the centre of war of words last week after he was controversially told to take “a leave of absence” from the panel. He has refused, saying only Francis can dismiss him, and has renewed his criticism of both the Church and the pontiff for lacking the resolve to tackle the issue.

“On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his (Francis’) part to effectively make change,” said Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child.

Just a year after the Argentine-born pontiff was ordained head of the Catholic Church, Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to address the endemic sexual abuse of children.

The move prompted great optimism about the leadership that the first-ever Latin American (and Jesuit) pope was expected to bring to a Holy See, an institution in dire need of momentum. In a document signed on March 22, 2014, Francis said the new commission’s “specific task” would be to propose to him “the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church.”

Now, nearly two years later, there has barely been any progress made by the Church, Saunders believes, with other members of the commission members publicly expressing dismay over the inaction. For Saunders, the Church is turning its back on the panel, ignoring the urgent action he is calling for.

Last Saturday the commission hit the headlines, when the Vatican announced there was a ‘difference in understanding of the mission and the powers‘ within the group and that the panel had voted for Saunders to “take a leave of absence from his membership.”

For him, it’s the final straw. Something must be done.

‘Very, very grim records’

Saunders told the Herald of his frustration at working with the Vatican.

“In the commission itself are people who have put in considerable effort, examining issues that need to be looked at,” Saunders said.

Their efforts however have been wasted, he argues, by a Church that “is in another dimension of time compared to the rest of the world.”

Saunders, the co-founder of a UK charity, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, says the Church is reluctant to kick out the abusers.

“When Jesus entered the temple and found it had been acquired by traders and gamblers, he didn’t say, ‘Let’s form a committee...’ Jesus picked the bastards up and threw them out. I know that Francis cannot physically do this, but that’s actually what needs to happen in the Church,” he said.

“There needs to be a turning out of all these people who have got very, very grim records — either they are abusers or they are known to have protected abusers or have enabled an abuser or made excuses for abusers.”

Saunders says a call he made for more openness and transparency at a meeting last week was rejected.

“I was shot down in flames,” he said, “The commission said that they need to remain secret and it was surprising how many times that word was used — not ‘confidential’ but ‘secret’ — the word has connotations with abuse because the whole nasty, vile world of the rape and sexual abuse of children exists because it is secret; it happens behind closed doors,” he said.

“I thought that Francis and the commission were going to be able to lead the way in this, and I was deceived. It’s not happening. As far as I’m concerned, the Church has lost all moral responsibility over any issue because it is failing in the most important issue, which is the protection of our children.”

Saunders is not alone in his doubts. On Wednesday, Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who is another of the 17 members of the pontifical commission, wrote on a Catholic news site that while she has confidence in the group and its members, “I do not have the same confidence in those whose task it is to work with us within the Vatican and implement our proposals when approved by the Pope.”

‘Clergy protect each other’

One of the first proposals the commission ever sent to Francis was the suggestion that a tribunal be set up for bishops and senior clerics who are accused of enabling abuse by not doing their job, or by moving around and protecting those who abuse children. Canonical lawyers however told Saunders that there is already a tribunal to try errant clergy, so there is no need for an additional body — a claim he dismissed as ridiculous.

The problem, he says, is that “canonical law is the equivalent to golf club rules, it means nothing in reality. Any kind of tribunal or internal court is never going to be vaguely independent or impartial as the clergy are committed to protecting each other.”

On Friday, Saunders spoke with the commission’s head, Boston’s Cardinal Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, asking him, “What, in concrete terms, has happened in the last 12 months for the protection of children?” According to Saunders, O’Malley replied, “Three bishops in America have been dismissed.”

Those three bishops, though, had not been dismissed. Saunders found out that they had been asked to resign.

“There is a big difference between being dismissed and resigning. I asked if he knew the names of those three. He could name two of them. The two that he named are both now back in the ministry,” he lamented.

Chilean dilemma

Saunders’ willingness to tackle abuse has led to him becoming involved with a case in neighbouring Chile. Last week, he stood with another abuse survivor in Rome, Juan Carlos Cruz, delivering a letter to Franics asking again for removal of a bishop, Juan Barros.

Barros was appointed bishop of Osorno, in southern Chile, earlier this year and the move drew heavy protests. He has been accused by local parishioners of protecting Fernando Karadima, a priest that the Vatican, in 2011, found guilty of sexually abusing children in the 1980s. One of his victims was Juan Carlos Cruz.

Barros has repeatedly denied sheltering Karadima. But 51 Chilean congressmen have sent a letter protesting against his appointment to the Vatican.

“Keeping Barros as bishop in Osorno is an insult to the many victims and survivors in that part of the world, including Juan Carlos Cruz,” Saunders told the Herald.

“The abuse that he suffered was witnessed by Bishop Barros, and the pope appointed him in the face of opposition from many clergymen in Chile,” Saunders claims.

The Argentine-born pontiff, who has impressed many with his humble leadership of the Church, is known to be annoyed by the challenge to his authority. In a video that emerged last year, the pope branded the people of Osorno “lefties” and accused them “of not thinking with their heads” for believing in the accusations.

“The Church has lost (part of its) freedom by allowing politicians to put ideas in the heads (of Church members), by judging a bishop without any proof after 20 years in service,” Francis said in the video, which was not intended to be made public.

Cruz’s name was originally put forward for membership of the papal commission. Although, in an effort to protect members of the Chilean church, two cardinals “clearly made sure Juan Carlos was not appointed to the commission,” Saunders claims.

“One of the cardinals is on oath in court as saying, ‘Yes, I made sure that that man did not become part of the commission,’” Saunders said.

A Chilean news website, El Mostrador, recently published the cardinals’ exchanges wherein the Archbishop of Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, said an email to his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, that Cruz’s appointment to the committee would be, “too severe for the Church in Chile,” and “give credit to and endorse a lie that Mr Cruz has cunningly built.”

State intervention

Now left partially hamstrung by his own peers and an entity reluctant to face its own demons, Saunders says the “atrocities” that are continuing to be committed.

“If it was any other nation state with such a poor record of human rights atrocities — there is no organization more responsible for the abuse of children around the world than the Vatican — I think there would be a good argument for sending in the United Nations to take the place over and sort it all out.”

This could never happen however, Saunders admits, as “theChurch is all-powerful, it is phenomenally wealthy, people have a subversive loyalty to it and the institution — which I don’t understand.”

The Herald asked Saunders if Pope Francis could yet still make a decisive effort to tackle the criris. “On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his part to effectively make change. Because, if there was, he would have removed (Bishop) Carlos (Barros) a long time ago.”




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.