ARGENTINA
BishopAccountability.org
Group says four victims sought his help but did not receive it
New resource includes database of 42 accused Argentine clerics
Argentine bishops are among the “least transparent” in the church, group says
Hundreds of cases in Pope’s native country are not public, researchers estimate
One week after Pope Francis called the church the only public institution that has been ‘transparent and responsible’ about child sexual abuse, a US-based international research group is posting the first comprehensive analysis of the pope’s track record on abuse during his 15 years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The new analysis raises sobering questions about the pope’s forthrightness and commitment to child protection. It reveals that then-Cardinal Bergoglio, Argentina’s most powerful Catholic leader, chose not to meet with victims, sided with a convicted child molester, and released no information about sex abuse cases in the Buenos Aires archdiocese. He even said that he had never dealt with an abusive priest.
The information was posted today on BishopAccountability.org, a large online archive of documents and data pertaining to the global abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The new feature includes the first public database of accused Argentine clerics, providing detailed summaries and hundreds of source about cases against 42 priests and brothers.
The new resource is provided in both English and Spanish.
Since it was founded in 2003, BishopAccountability.org, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, has maintained a large, authoritative database of publicly accused US priests – now with nearly 4,000 names. With its new Argentina feature, BishopAccountability.org is launching a global database effort, as the popularity of the first non-European Pope increases awareness of the church’s role in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
“We hope our new resource will encourage balanced scrutiny of how Pope Francis supervised abusers and responded to victims in Argentina,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org.
“In the astonishing first year of his pontificate, he repeatedly attacked church officials’ corrupt handling of finances. But he basically ignored their mismanagement of offending priests. And in his remarks about abuse on March 6, he complained that the church was being unfairly attacked. Does Francis have the will to resolve this catastrophic problem? Studying his record as archbishop will help us better understand his underlying approach,” Doyle said.
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