The Sex Abuse Summit and the Vatican's Lack of Transparency

By Robert Mickens
La Croix International
February 22, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/the-sex-abuse-summit-and-the-vaticans-lack-of-transparency/9520?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_content=22-02-2019&utm_campaign=newsletter_crx_lci&PMID=0993ce75a05e850a9ee6d7668f102aad

On the eve of the Vatican's summit aimed at getting the entire Church to face up to the ever-widening clerical sex abuse crisis, some in the media wondered if the meeting risked being overshadowed by other controversies.

One was supposed to be the issue of gay priests -- whom traditionalist Catholics have scapegoated as pederasts, and a French author has sensationalized in a just-released book in which he claims the Catholic hierarchy and the Roman Curia are full of gay men who are either leading double lives or are actually homophobic and militantly anti-homosexual.Another looming controversy that was destined to detract from the abuse summit was the recent revelation that the Vatican has issued secret rules for priests who have fathered children.And yet another was the issue of religious women (nuns) who have been sexually abused and raped by priests and bishops, something the Vatican has tried to keep quiet for a number of decades.None of these controversies is directly related to the sexual abuse of minors; with apologies to our traditionalist brothers and sisters who are convinced that gay priests are prone to be child molesters.However, there is an issue that is related to the abuse summit. And it is one that very few people are talking about. It's the Vatican's lack of transparency in dealing with credibly accused predator priests working directly for the Holy See.Ensuring that all bishops and Church leaders commit themselves unwaveringly to a policy of transparency is one of the main objectives of the summit.But how can that happen when transparency -- and not just concerning sex abuse cases -- has rarely been one of the Vatican's prime virtues? External pressure leads to removal of Vatican officials accused of abuse Over the past several months at least three senior officials...