Critics Say Pope's Law Requiring Priests, Nuns to Report Sex Abuse Does Not Go Far Enough

By Corky Siemaszko
NBC News
May 9, 2019

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critics-say-pope-francis-law-requiring-priests-nuns-report-sex-n1003941

Victim advocates said Thursday that the fatal flaw in Pope Francis’ new mandate that priests and nuns report clerical sex abuse is that it requires the church to police itself, instead of notifying law enforcement.

They say it’s not enough that Francis has required whistle-blowers to report any abuse or cover-ups to their superiors.

“We're already seeing this 'new' church plan described as 'groundbreaking' and 'sweeping,' but that's irresponsible,” said David Clohessy, the former director of Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “These are promises, plain and simple. They might lead to change. They might not. But children need concrete action, not more pledges from a complicit church hierarchy.”

Popes, said Clohessy, “have always had the power to defrock, demote and discipline bad bishops.”

“They just refuse to do so,” he said. “And that's why clergy sex crimes keep happening. What's needed is courage, not policies. Until heads roll, until a few dozen bishops are fired for hiding predators, little will change.”

“We're disappointed that the pope still refuses to simply tell church employees they must call the police. Any policy or pledge that still largely enables the Catholic hierarchy to handle crimes internally is doomed to continue both abuse and cover-up.”

Clohessy said the silver lining in Francis’ latest effort to tackle the sex abuse scandal, which some say has wrecked the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy — and resulted in the church’s paying millions of dollars to settle lawsuits — is that priests and nuns are required to report even decades-old abuse allegations.

“It's a step forward that church officials reportedly won't use some arbitrary, self-serving deadline or statute of limitations, but it's crucial to remember that these are just promises and habits die hard, so we'll wait to see if this really happens,” he said.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who became famous after his attempts to go after predator priests was dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” echoed Clohessy’s concerns.

“The new Vatican laws concerning the reporting of sexual abuse continue the secrecy which has enabled clergy sexual abuse to exist, allows the Catholic Church to continue to ineffectively self-police and basically discourages victims from just calling the police,” he wrote in an email. “History has taught us that the Vatican, with its self-proclaimed laws and procedures, is incapable of protecting innocent children from being sexually abused.”

Garabedian weighed in two days after he held a press conference demanding that the names of eight men be added to the Archdiocese of Boston’s lengthy list of priests accused of abuse on the archdiocese’ website, including one who allegedly molested a teenager 20 years ago by telling her he needed to perform an exorcism on her, according to Garabedian. The Archdiocese of Boston declined to comment on the specific allegations but said that the priest in that incident had been removed from the priesthood.

Francis’ new law, which goes into effect on June 1 and will be re-evaluated after three years, provides protections for anyone making an abuse report and requires dioceses to put into place a system that ensures confidentiality.

Essentially, it makes the church’s 415,000 priests and 660,000 nuns mandated reporters. And it spells out procedures for conducting preliminary probes when the accused cleric is a bishop or cardinal or any other religious superior.

But Francis stopped short of requiring that police be informed because the Vatican has long argued that doing so could endanger the Church in countries were Catholics are a minority and facing persecution.

“It would be a good thing” for people to go to the police, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said at the Vatican news conference.