UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Childless Pope Francis, and his other old bachelor cronies, have done it again. They have shown once more their extreme insensitivity and tone deafness to the protection of women and children. The pope has clearly condoned violence to children, while his subordinate Polish bishops have, in effect, condoned violence to women, it appears. Will the media, if they truly care about defenseless children and desperate women, now finally report what this “Teflon Pope” is really about? Will they end their nonstop nonsense that seemingly aims at perpetuating the myth of a “big teddy bear” pope, despite his well reported authoritarian Jesuit and “bouncer” history and his many continuously inconsistent and insensitive actions?
As Pope Francis’ illusory sex abuse commission is now being exposed as little more than another of the Vatican’s Machiavellian political ploys — a classic stall tactic in the form of an extremely unfocused, open ended, conflicted and understaffed “study commission”. The Vatican appears to be trying to use courageous, but frustrated, abuse survivor members, Ireland’s Marie Collins and the UK’s Peter Saunders, as mere window dressing, while millions of cowardly Catholics worldwide shamefully temporize and make these two martyrs, who have already suffered too much, do the heavy lifting alone. These two survivors have reportedly also voiced further concerns after the commission’s initial meeting about the Vatican’s efforts on curtailing priest child abuse. They reportedly also said the Vatican has a year or two at most to implement policies with teeth, otherwise they will leave.
Please see “Pace of Vatican child protection body frustrates Marie Collins“, here,
Meanwhile, Pope Francis, and his subordinates in Poland, once more confound the world — this time about spanking children and beating women. Please see my full discussion below and “Holy See must clarify stance on corporal punishment“, by outspoken former Irish President and canon lawyer, Mary McAleese, here,
, and “Pope’s sex abuse commission alarmed by Francis’ comments about spanking kids, says it’s not OK” , here,
and “Clergy sexual abuse victim criticises pope over spanking remark“, here,
and “Poland votes to ratify treaty to protect women” , here,
[Zee News]
and “Pope calls again for ‘incisive’ women’s presence in church, offers no specifics“, here,
Why do so many in the media let Pope Francis “zig and zag” so often, without calling him on it. Just follow his meandering Yellow Brick Road. Don’t breed like rabbits, just don’t use the Pill. Help the poor, but honor, like he seems to do, the crony capitalist billionaires who help keep them poor. Protect children, but don’t report priest child abuse to the police unless legally obligated to do so. Slap your kids, but do so respectfully. Protect women, but oppose treaties that seek to do so. Be nice to abuse survivors, but go bankrupt to avoid compensating them justly. Don’t judge gay folks, just ostracize them from Church institutions. Is Pope Francis really shrewd, or just opportunistic, or even duplicitous and hypocritical? Perhaps his advanced age has caught up to him? What do you think?
Pope Francis personally, and probably unintentionally, is evidently undercutting steadily the world’s respect for papal moral authority, as well as the belief of many Catholics in papal infallibility. This papal myth is the key to the modern post-1870 “supreme papacy”. Pope Francis is almost singlehandedly exposing this myth, by his unpredictable, inconsistent and even seemingly contradictory statements and actions, with respect to protecting children and women, to contraception, to treating women, divorced persons, gay folks and others with dignity, and on other significant matters as well.
Significantly, well informed and reliable, Anne Barrett Doyle, of BishopAccountability.org has responded to the pope’s sex abuse commission’s first press conference wisely and pointedly, in pertinent part as follows (in italics):
” … If Commission members are going to fulfill the vision articulated by Pope Francis earlier this week — to become an “important and effective means” of helping the Pope “rid the Church of the scourge” of sexual assaults by clergy — we urge them to:
1. Insist on accountability measures that are tough and unambiguous. Church officials who endanger children and protect dangerous priests must be removed and censured.
2. Insist on a church abuse policy that is strict, uniform, and global. Cultural norms are not an acceptable excuse for putting children in danger. A priest who would be deemed unsafe by bishops in one country must not be allowed to work in another.
3. Take issue with Pope Francis’s instruction to church officials this week that the provisions of the CDF’s May 2011 Circular Letter be “fully implemented.” This document is more about due process for priests than protection of children. Some of its provisions are dangerously weak.
4. Ask why the Circular Letter contains NO provision regarding zero-tolerance – that is, the permanent removal of a priest guilty of an act of child sexual abuse.
5. Demand that true zero tolerance become the church’s global standard. It must be stated in every abuse policy of every bishops’ conference and religious institute.
6. Avoid recommending universal adoption of the U.S. church’s norms unless those are tightened. While stricter than the Circular Letter provisions, the U.S. norms have proved to be too lenient. They give U.S. bishops too much discretion in deciding whether to remove an accused priest.
7. Insist that bishops and religious superiors be required to: a) investigate every allegation; b) remove accused clergy during investigations; and c) submit all allegations to independent, lay review boards.
8. Insist too that every abuse policy require church officials to report allegations to civil authorities, even when not mandated to do so under local law.
9. Recommend that the following red-flag language be removed from the Circular Letter and from every Conference’s abuse policy: “the bishop has the duty to treat all his priests as father and brother.” This language belongs in documents about doctrine, not sex crimes by clergy. Bishops worldwide invoke this principle to justify not reporting child-molesting priests to secular law enforcement. Bishop Charles Scicluna confirmed this in a 2010 interview. A bishop calling the police on a priest is “a gesture comparable to that of a father denouncing his own son,” he said, and the church therefore does “not force bishops to denounce their own priests.” The abuse policy of the Philippine Church is explicit on this score: its bishops do not report priests to civil authorities, since the bishop-priest relationship is “analogous to that between father and son.”
10. Insist that the norms require transparency. Bishops and religious superiors must be required to publicly release information about credibly accused clergy, including their names, assignment histories, alleged crimes, and church files. And this transparency should begin with Pope Francis. Just as he has modeled a simple lifestyle for the world’s bishops, he could set an example of transparency, by disclosing information about credibly accused clergy he has managed during his career.
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.