Will the Catholic Church Stop the Sexual Abuse? Don't Hold Your Breath
By Karen Cyson
Let's not discuss the varied opinions on border walls, refugees and immigration. Let's not discuss the efficacy of vaccines or medical marijuana. Let's not even discuss whether University Drive should be pushed through to U.S. Highway 10. Can we agree on one thing? Can we agree that raping children is wrong? I think it's wrong. Do you? We live in a world where an international organization, one established on every continent save Antarctica, knows that thousands of its leaders have raped thousands of children over decades and perhaps centuries. This week that organization is convening a summit to discuss the problem. Don't hold your breath waiting for reform. Here are the words of the world leader of the group concerning the summit: "I permit myself to say that I've perceived a bit of an inflated expectation. We need to deflate the expectations." Those were the words of Pope Francis to the world's1.2 billion Roman Catholics when he got wind of expectations that the summit Feb. 21-24 would produce a zero-tolerance policy regarding priests raping children, bishops and archbishops moving predators from parish to parish and cover-ups. Don't get your hopes up. Don't expect the summit to actually do anything. Perhaps the pope isn't aware of the magnitude of the problem. Could that be it? Sure, he's spoken with survivors, he has acknowledged that there has been harm. Has he seen the lists? Have you? The website BishopAccountability.org (bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbydiocese.html) maintains a list, by diocese, of credibly-accused priests in the U.S.While it may not be completely up to date, what with the release of 286 names in Texas last week, 58 priests named in Virginia andnearly 200 priests named in New Jersey on Thursday,it does contain an astonishing database of credibly-accused priests and the response of the Church (or lack thereof) in all 50 states. Just click on a state and view the roll call. The group that maintains this site has also added links to information on Chile, Argentina and Ireland. On Thursday, Pope Francis will convene the summit to discuss the issue of sexual abuse with the intent of making bishops aware of the suffering of victims and protocols for dealing with complaints. Isn't that too little, too late? Isn't this just another publicity stunt like the 2014 establishment of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors,which has accomplished nothing in five years and resulted in the lay members and members who are abuse survivors resigning in disgust? This scandal has been rocking the church for three decades and costing millions upon millions of dollars and a probably unrepairable cost to its reputation. The harm caused to the rape victims is incalculable. Shouldn't the summit address the issue and conclude that raping children is unacceptable and will not be tolerated? That rapist priests will lose their status with the church? That any authority (priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal) who reassigns a predator priest or participates in any type of cover-up also lose their position? Is that too much to ask? And then, as they have four days and it should only take minutes to decide that raping children is wrong, perhaps they could address the emerging scandal of priests raping nuns. The cover-ups, the abortions, the children born and not acknowledged. They could start with accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal in Indiaand expand their research from there. Or, stay with me here, they could adopt as a policy statement the idea that anyone raping anyone is wrong and will not be tolerated. Are they that brave? Could they possibly do that? Perhaps, as Pope Francis says, I should deflate my expectations. He has already announced that the summit will deal with the after-the-rape victim suffering and handling of complaints. Declaring rape by priests to be unacceptable and not to be tolerated is probably too much to ask. This is the opinion of Karen Cyson, a member of the Times Writers Group.
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