UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
A tale of two cities, London and Vatican City: two different approaches to investigating official cover-ups of child sexual abuse — the UK’s is serious; the Vatican’s is window dressing so far. The latest tale takes place over just a few days, yet shows the essential contrast between the UK’s parliamentary democracy and the Vatican’s absolute monarchy. London’s investigative approach is clearly designed to be expeditious, independent and transparent; the Vatican’s approach is clearly designed to be unending, controlled and secretive. London’s sex abuse commission is seeking to find out who did what when; the Vatican’s sex abuse commission is designed to find “best practices”, including some education and training programs. If the pope is serious, he needs to add to his commission some experienced, independent and proven members, like Fr. Thomas Doyle, Illinois Justice Anne Burke and former Irish President, Mary McAleese? Is Francis trying to avoid the truth? It seems he is.
It has been a tough week for Pope Francis with: (1) the UK investigation announcement, (2) the much and justifiably ridiculed all male “Pontifical Council on Women” with its launch in a night club atmosphere at Teatro Argentina in Rome, and (3) the release of Jesuit educated and former Wall Street lawyer, Gerald Posner’s explosive book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican” , (see at Amazon link [Amazon]). Posner, who was generally stonewalled by the Vatican leadership under both the ex-Pope and Francis, covers everything from unspeakable misdeeds involving Holocaust victims’ assets, to Vatican facilitation of bribery of Italian political leaders, to Pope Francis’ recent efforts to stop the financial bleeding.
Please see, for more. my related remarks, “Will UK Probe of Teresa May Compel Ex-Pope Benedict To Testify?” , here,
and “Vatican To Women: YES on Unwanted Babies – NO on Tummy Tucks “, here,
Will Hillary Clinton, a Yale lawyer who worked on the Watergate Commission that transparently and independently investigated US President Nixon’s criminal cover-up conspiracy, be next to call for a national investigation commission in the USA? President Obama seems to lack the fortitude to do so. Australia’s Julia Gillard and UK’s Teresa May called for serious commissions. Is this a “women thing” only? Why is Michelle Obama, a Harvard lawyer, so silent here? As US whistle blowers and SNAP justifiably take their bows, why are they not blowing their whistles at President Obama’s inexcusable inaction?
Australia has shown that a well funded national commission is the best way to curtail institutional child sex abuse and also to get justice for abuse survivors. The whistle blowers’ and SNAP’s failure to press Obama more to set up a presidential commission is puzzling at best. Please see prominent Australian abuse advocate, Aletha Blayse’s persuasive case for a US presidential investigation commission like Australia already has, here,”Child Abuse, War, and the Need for a National Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse”, here,
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