VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 06, 2013
The Pope’s top aide on clergy sex abuse, Fr. Robert Oliver, just told the AP that the pope “had spoken clearly about the need for transparency and justice in order to regain the trust of the faithful.”
We agree.
But the trouble is that the pope’s actions contradict his words. And his priorities are backwards.
Catholic officials must start truly protecting kids, exposing truth, and punishing wrong-doers, both those who commit and those conceal child sex crimes. That’s “job one.” When that happens, the “trust of the faithful” will be restored.
When the Pope denounces, disciplines, demotes or defrocks Bishop Robert Finn, Cardinal Roger Mahony and dozens of their corrupt colleagues, then “the trust of the faithful” will be restored. Even more crucial, then the safety of children will be enhanced and the cover ups of future abuse will be discouraged.
It’s ironic that Fr. Oliver is talking about “complacency.” A decade ago, in the beleaguered Boston Archdiocese, Fr. Oliver helped alter an archdiocese policy “to curtail access by alleged victims of abuse to church records — a move that surprised lay leaders who sat on the Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children.”
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