UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Pope Francis has recently had a rough time on key issues related to children, women and wealth. At a Roman street celibration of the Immaculate Conception, he observed: “…[T]he fragility of children may always move us …” Nice words, to be sure. Of course, the fragility of children may NOT always move us! It hasn’t moved Pope Francis very much in almost nine months. He can hardly avoid this by just making a carefully staged visit to a Rome childrens’ hospital as he just did.
Pope Francis even had a subordinate, Cardinal O’Malley, a few days after the Vatican’s recent stonewalling of the UN child protection commission, announce suddenly and vaguely a future advisory “pastoral papal abuse commission” that may not, according to O’Malley, even address bishop accountability for covering-up for predatory priests. Are they serious?
On the UN stonewalling, please see:
Moreover, has Pope Francis ever criticized any bishop over child abuse, in Rome or when he was in Argentina? Indeed, as recently reported, the first compensation payments to Argentine priest abuse survivors were just made to victims of a priest convicted almost a decade ago, while Francis was the senior local Church leader, see:
Some of Francis’ bishops are not faring much better. The Minneapolis Archdiocese, with some high visibility scandals that involve a former head of the US bishops’ child protection committee, as well as a whistle blowing female ex-Chancellor and a former vicar general who is the brother of President Obama’s key advisor, keeps getting more negative news.
Archbishop Nienstedt has even been criticized by one of his own priests about a reported new “apology” even before Nienstedt got to deliver it at Sunday Mass. Innocent priests are beginning to speak out more loudly and frequently. Please see:
When is Francis going to fix the abuse mess in his own organization that he actually can do something about instead of just preaching so much about problems beyond his control to fix?
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.