UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 06, 2012
How many meetings will it take for Rome to learn that child sex abuse is a crime, predators must be made public and jailed, and church officials who cover up for molesters must be held accountable?
But even after years of promises, meetings, and empty apologies, the Vatican cannot do the simplest, cheapest, and most child-friendly action possible: make public decades of secret files on clergy sex offenders and enablers.
This week in Rome, Catholic bishops and religious superiors from around the world are meeting for the Vatican-sponsored “Towards Healing and Renewal” conference. The four day symposium is being billed as a “global initiative on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults”.
Conference leaders say that the purpose of this event is to create guidelines on how to handle reports of childhood sexual abuse. Who will be leading the discussion? The very same “experts” and church officials who bear responsibility for the continued global cover-up of clergy child sex crimes, including Cardinal William Levada, who covered up criminal reports of child rape and sexual assault when he was archbishop of San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon.
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