UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Statement by SNAP leader Becky Ianni of DC/northern Virginia ( 703-801-6044, SNAPVirginia@cox.net )
We agree with Pope Francis that “The statistics of the phenomenon of violence against children are staggering.”
He proposes, however, not a single step by anyone to help remedy this tragic fact. His response to this devastating violence is apparently to change little or nothing.
Instead of using his unequalled bully pulpit to exhort parents to be more vigilant or prosecutors to be more aggressive or lawmakers to be more pro-active or employers to be more cautious, he defends the indefensible.
And instead of using his vast power to reform his church hierarchy’s legendary reckless, callous and deceptive handling of clergy sex cases, he mischaracterizes insignificant, belated, grudging concessions as significant, genuine progress. Instead of admitting he and his colleagues and underlings have been and still are too secretive, he endorses his and their continuing patterns of promising transparency while practicing deception. (It was just a few months ago, under this pope, not his predecessor, that Vatican officials rebuffed a United Nations panel’s request for information about clergy sex crimes.)
The Pope’s interview, according to the National Catholic Reporter, “contains some of the pope’s only public words on the sexual abuse crisis, which continues to roil dioceses across the world.”
The Pope said “Clearly that the vast majority of abuse happens in the family setting and neighborhood.” What possible motive could he have for saying this except to deflect attention from the Catholic Church’s horrific track record moving predators, promoting enablers, stonewalling investigators, deceiving parishioners, destroying evidence, attacking victims, discrediting whistleblowers, blocking disclosures, and stopping reforms of secular child safety laws?
“Those people – in families and neighborhoods – are worse than we are” is a petty and hurtful claim unbecoming of a pontiff.
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