MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By
O’Ryan Johnson / Boston Herald
Pope Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, hails from a region that has yet to be embroiled in the child sex abuse crisis that struck the church in America and Europe, leaving victims’ advocates here wary of his ascendency to St. Peter’s Chair.
Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who led legal actions over abuse against the church in Boston, said he believes the cardinals’ elections of an Argentinian was based solely on protecting its base in Latin America from other Christian denominations, not on addressing the lingering issues of pedophile priests.
“The church has made a political decision in voting for Pope Francis. The church is losing many, many parishioners to the evangelical church,” Garabedian said. “The church has made a decision to not lose parishioners in Central America and South America. It was a political decision by a trillion-dollar corporation.”
Phil Saviano, a board member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he was at least relieved the new Holy Father was not among the so-called “Dirty Dozen” cardinals who SNAP identified as being complicit in either the abuse or cover-up of child sex crimes, though he is not convinced Latin America parishioners haven’t suffered abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.