UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
It is turning into a significant fortnight for the Vatican, which included a papal saint making doubleheader and an uneventful minor meeting of the Pope Francis’ overly touted new advisory “Commission on Minors”. In particular, the period included:
(1) Two new “pope saints” and a third in the wings, as described below;
(2) Two tributes, by well regarded Catholic thinkers in a leading lay Catholic publication of top Vatican critic, Fr. Hans Kung, here
(3) Two critiques and a brief history of the priest abuse scandal by Fr. Thomas Doyle, the leading expert and advocate: one critique here
; and the history here
[Crusade Against Clergy Abuse]
while the other critique by Fr. Doyle of the current Vatican failures is set out below;
( 4) The release of the sworn depositions of former Vicar General of the Minneapolis Archdiocese (USA), Fr. Kevin McDonough, here
[Minnesota Public Radio] ; and of his Archbishop Nienstedt here
[Minnesota Public Radio] ;and
(5) Two developments on the Vatican’s “slow walk stonewalling” on holding bishops accountable for protecting children—a “going through the motions” preliminary meeting of the elusive new papal advisory Commission on Minors and a review of Vatican stonewalling at next week’s UN Committee on Torture hearings in Geneva.
As Vatican representatives prepare to testify before a United Nations inquiry into torture , a Vatican official warned that it would be “deceptive” to link torture with the pedophilia scandals that have swept the Catholic church. The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Fr. Lombardi, said Friday, 5/2, that the Convention Against Torture, endorsed by the Vatican in 2002, was one of the most important in the U.N.’s ambit. Lombardi also stressed in a statement the Holy See’s “strong commitment against any form of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.”
But Lombardi urged the U.N. committee to resist pressure from human rights activists that are intent on including the sexual abuse of minors in a discussion about torture. Tens of thousands of children sexually abused, often brutally by priests, likely see this differently than childless and celibate Jesuits like Fr. Lombardi and Pope Francis.
SNAP, the survivors advocacy group, recently indicated that hundreds of children and adults were still being “sexually violated, tortured and assaulted” by Catholic priests. “Torture and violence can be subtle and manipulative. Or it can be blatant and brutal,” said SNAP President Barbara Blaine. “Either way, it’s horribly destructive to the human spirit, especially when inflicted on the young by the powerful, on the truly devout by the allegedly holy.” She added: “Nothing has succeeded in getting Vatican officials to stop this violence”.
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