UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
Pope Benedict now claims he never covered up for predator priests. He could not be more wrong.
[Reuters]
Over a clerical career that lasted more than six decades, we can’t think of a single child molesting bishop, priest, nun, brother or seminarian than Benedict ever exposed.
In the church’s entire history, no one knew more but did less to protect kids than Benedict. As head of CDF, thousands of cases of predator priests crossed his desk. Did he choose to warn families or call police about even one of those dangerous clerics? No. That, by definition, is a cover up.
Benedict is a smart man. He knows that each one of those individuals should have been reported to law enforcement. Yet he never made those call. Nor did he order others to make those calls. Nor did he ever discipline or denounce – in even the slightest way – those who clearly hid clergy sex crimes from law enforcement (like Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City who was convicted for hiding clergy child sex crimes).
Only under intense pressure, and only in the waning months of his papacy, did Benedict begin to even make the most pathetic gestures regarding child sex crimes or cover ups. And they were indeed gestures – largely symbolic acts that had and have zero impact in protecting kids.
The opposite of “covering up” is “uncovering” or “disclosing.” Again, we cannot name one predatory bishop, priest, nun, brother or seminarian who was publicly exposed because of Benedict.
Six months ago, here’s what we said about “Setting Pope Benedict’s record straight” –
Let’s get specific. What exactly DID Pope Benedict do about the committing and concealing of child sex crimes in the church? LA Times writer Mitchell Lansberg did a good job of summarizing the case made by Benedict’s defenders, who say that he:
1. “essentially banished an influential Mexican priest, Father Marcial Maciel, who had long been suspected of sexually abusing seminarians and boys in his care and had fathered at least three children”
2. “ordered investigations into sexual abuse and issued guidelines in 2010 that made it easier to punish abusive priests”
3. “spoke of the ‘deep shame’ and ‘humiliation’ the scandal had brought on the Catholic Church. He apologized to victims”
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