UNITED STATES
WBUR
Tue, Jun 16, 2015
by Rich Barlow
Might some Friends of Francis appear before the pope’s just-created tribunal to investigate bishops charged with shielding pedophile priests? Lovers of soap opera can only hope. As for us Catholics, the fact that the queue of defendants could look as crowded as the Republican presidential debate stage is painful, but the tribunal is overdue.
The pope who famously asked “who am I to judge” about gays is poised to judge accused concealers of crime. Good for him. Meanwhile, the aggregated response of abuse survivors and their advocates to the papal announcement has been a measured two cheers. They welcome the idea but, wisely, are withholding final assessment until they see how the panel works in practice.
he aggregated response of abuse survivors and their advocates to the papal announcement has been a measured two cheers.
Victims should be the go-to sources on this. They suffered the crimes and have been the most relentless voices for reform in the church. The tribunal is a longstanding demand of theirs, as episcopal enablers helped perpetuate the pedophile scandal but largely have escaped punishment. Peter Saunders, an abuse survivor advising Francis, termed the papal creation “a positive step.”
At the same time, he told The New York Times, “When allegations against senior clergy are brought to the tribunal, we’ll see whether it’s working.” The president of Boston-based BishopAccountability.org was cheered by the news, but his counterpart at Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was underwhelmed, seeing the tribunal as Roman-collared foxes guarding the hen house. Better, she argued, for the Vatican to lobby for more robust secular prosecution of guilty bishops. For its part, the Vatican insisted that the tribunal would not take the place of law enforcement but would add ecclesiastical penalties.
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