CALIFORNIA
WCSC
[with video]
ROME (CBS) – Pope Francis made his first public plea for forgiveness on Friday for the “evil” committed by priests who molested children and used some of his strongest language yet on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.
Some, however, say the pontiff’s words are not enough. And that they would rather see more concrete action taken against priests accused of child abuse.
Joelle Casteix, an abuse victim and the western director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, says that Pope Francis is simply following in his predecessors’ footsteps.
“This is the status quo. Pope Francis is the third pope to apologize for the sexual abuse of minors. He’s doing nothing but continues in the patterns of his predecessors. He is continuing by forming committees, by making apologies, by asking for forgiveness. And he’s also following in the path of his predecessors by not doing anything, by not punishing anybody and by not ensuring that what happened to me and other kids isn’t still going on,” Casteix said.
She also emphasized that the Catholic Church has repeatedly tried to obscure the issue of child abuse by redirecting the discussion away from the central topic of priests molesting children.
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.