VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 25, 2014
VATICAN CITY
Days before Pope John Paul II will be made a saint in an unprecedented ceremony attended by hundreds of thousands, focus at the Vatican on Friday morning remained on his record in handling the clergy sexual abuse crisis, specifically the serial abuser Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Responding to questions at a briefing on John Paul II’s time leading the Catholic church from 1978 to 2005, former Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls said the pope did not immediately understand the gravity of the sexual abuse crisis.
“I don’t think Pope John Paul understood” the “cancer” of clergy sexual abuse immediately, said Navarro-Valls, adding: “I don’t think anyone did.”
But, the former spokesman said, once John Paul II became aware of the scope of the accusations being made against clergy, especially around the time of reporting on the Boston archdiocese in 2002, he “immediately” began taking action.
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