Latest Revelations Hint at Shocking Global Scope of Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal

By Jonathon Gatehouse
CBC News
February 21, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-pope-abuse-summit-snc-lavalin-1.5024315

Pope Francis prays Thursday during the opening of a global child protection summit for reflections on the sex abuse crisis within the Catholic Church, at the Vatican. Pope Francis has set aside three and a half days to persuade Catholic bishops to tackle the issues of sexual abuse. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)

Last summer, Pope Francis wrote an unprecedented letter to the world's 1.2 billion Catholics apologizing for the church's abandonment of "the little ones," and asking for the laity's help in "uprooting this culture of death."

But as a special four-day summit on abuse prevention opens in Rome this morning, the scope of the crisis might best be described as both huge and hazy.

A protester outside St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on Thursday during the opening of a global child protection summit on the sex abuse crisis within the Catholic Church. (Giuseppe Lami/EPA-EFE)

National churches have been taking their own approach to accusations of abuse that often stretch back decades.

In the United States, there has been a sudden burst of transparency, with 96 of the country's 178 dioceses releasing lists of "credibly accused" priests and other church employees over the past six months, some 2,600 names in all.

The past week alone saw the Diocese of Oakland, Calif., release a list identifying 45 accused priests, Catholic brothers and deacons, dating back to 1962. While church leaders in Brooklyn, N.Y., made 108 names public, albeit most of them belonging to now-deceased priests. And in Virginia, the Diocese of Richmond disclosed the names of 42 accused clergy — all either dead or no longer active within the church.

This, however, appears to be the tip of the iceberg.

In the spring of 2017, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reported that it counted 6,721 clerics who had been "credibly" or "not implausibly" accused of child sex abuse since 1950. The website BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abuse allegations, notes that its database contains just under 3,900 names, meaning that more 40 per cent of the U.S. accused remain unknown to the public.

(To date, the amount of money paid out in settlements to U.S. victims is in excess of $4 billion, with new cases being filed on an almost daily basis.)

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) president Tim Lennon from Tucson, Ariz., centre, stands in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during Pope Francis' general audience Wednesday. He's joined by SNAP members Esther Hatfield Miller from Los Angeles and Carol Midboe from Austin, all of whom travelled to Rome to protest the Catholic Church's response to date and demand an end to decades of cover-up by church leaders. (Luigi Navarra/Associated Press)

Pope Francis addresses church officials at the Vatican Thursday on the opening day of the Catholic Church summit on its global sexual abuse crisis. (Vatican via EPA-EFE)

This meeting in Rome isn't supposed to forge a consensus, let alone a comprehensive abuse policy, it is simply being billed as a step in a long process.

Much work remains to be done, even by Pope Francis.

In December 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada's residential schools recommended that the Pope formally apologize for the Catholic Church's role in running 72 per cent of the institutions.

More than three years later, survivors are still waiting.

"I am sure that he has in his heart the ... suffering of these people," Canada's Cardinal Marc Ouellet told the CBC yesterday. "That would be also my hope, that one day he could come. It's up to him."

Tempering expectations

The bar is set very high for the Pope's first global summit on protecting youth from abuse in the Catholic Church, writes reporter Thomas Daigle in Rome.

The gaggle of several dozen reporters and photographers near St. Peter's Square, trying to push forward to get closer to the front of the crowd, was the first sign of an over-hyped event.

The pack was waiting for sexual abuse victims to exit a meeting they had hoped to have with the pontiff. But Francis never showed up.

And that could be a sign of disappointment to come.

Verona, Italy's Antonio Provolo Institute first made national headlines 10 years ago when allegations of sexual abuse committed by priests against deaf boys surfaced publicly. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

By the Pope's own recent admission, "the problem of abuse will continue" after this highly anticipated conference involving nearly 200 senior Catholic clerics and officials.

The Meeting on the Protection of Minors — as it's officially called — got underway today and runs until Sunday. And those involved are tamping down expectations.

Anyone hoping Catholic bishops will "change the world" during this summit will be disappointed, said Father Federico Lombardi, a former papal spokesman who is acting as the event's moderator.

He told me the expectation should rather be for "many new ideas and concrete models" for protecting minors to emerge.

So much for the hopes of victims of clerical abuse. Our recent trip to Verona, 500 kilometres north of the Vatican, highlighted the deep and painful scars that remain for survivors of abuse, even decades later. And it showed how for some, expectations for the summit go far beyond what will likely happen.

Clergymen at Verona's Antonio Provolo Institute — a Catholic-run school for deaf boys — sexually and physical abused at least dozens of students between the 1950s and 1980s. One man told me that when he was 6, a priest started sodomizing him every night.

A group of Provolo victims and supporters is headed to Rome to demand compensation for the horrific abuse they endured. Their spokesman, Marco Lodi Rizzini, said giving them money "is the only thing" the Church can do for the survivors.

The next few days will show what the Pope and his cohort are willing to do to stop the abuse.

- Thomas Daigle