Pope Francis Honors Popes Who Failed Kids: Why?

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis has been described as one who nods agreeably to others he meets with, then does whatever he wants regardless of others’ viewpoints— authoritarian, yes, purposeful, surely, but fallible also. What remains to be seen is whether he is also courageous. The key moral challenge Francis faces as pope is to restore Catholics’ trust in leaders who too often risked children inexcusably for years. If a pope cannot be trusted to protect children and to demand that his bishops be held accountable for failing to do so , what can he be trusted with?

Ominously, Francis has generally avoided this challenge for over a year. He now has recently failed to meet it on several occasions; most noticeably by unnecessarily jamming through the sainthood of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. Both these popes risked children’s safety continually and shamefully. Francis could have indicated his seriousness about holding bishops accountable by holding these two popes accountable to a thorough and independent review of their record. But instead he rushed to their sainthood on a superficial and biased investigation by papal subordinates. Why?

John XXIII apparently steered 2,000+ bishops at the Second Vatican Council away from addressing the child abuse scandal in the 1960′s. John Paul II and Benedict XVI steered them away from the scandal from the 1970′s until last year. Francis seemingly continues this cover-up and now honors popes who earlier dishonored children. Again why?

Stark examples of the cover-up that continues under Pope Francis are well indicated by two recent video depositions worlds apart—Cardinal Pell in Australia, here

[ABC News]

and former Vicar General of the Minneapolis Archdiocese (USA), Fr. Kevin McDonough, here

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Cardinal Pell’s full testimony disclosed a pathetic, if not cruel, example of approaching survivors of priest child abusers as legal claimants to be crushed by the Cardinal’s lawyers. Yet, Francis just promoted him to the No. 3 at the Vatican.

Fr. McDonough, brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, has refused to meet to discuss abuse cases he oversaw with police or even with his Archbishop’s own task force, yet he continues to serve as a Catholic pastor in good standing. Francis’ message to bishops in Australia and the USA is the same as the message being sent worldwide with these two canonizations—protecting suspected predator priests is not viewed negatively by the Vatican and the hierarchy will not be held accountable.

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