PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John Salveson
POSTED: FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015
I’ve been struggling for months with how to personally deal with this fall’s visit by Pope Francis for the World Meeting of Families.
I would like to share in the excitement — but I am deeply conflicted.
On one hand, I am a proud Philadelphian and active member of the region’s business and civic community who thinks the visit is good for the region. It signals once again that our city is growing in prestige and recognition as a world-class community. I’m confident we will shine brightly in the eyes of the world come September.
On the other hand, I am frustrated and angry. I was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest. For 35 years, I have worked to help bring justice to child sex-abuse victims. In doing so, I have encountered the most relentless, heartless resistance to reform from the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. With every story I read about the World Meeting of Families, all I can think of is the breathtaking hypocrisy of it all.
I believe many of the Catholic faithful are either tired of hearing about the clergy sex-abuse crisis or simply believe it has been corrected. I empathize with them. No one is more tired of talking about it than I am. And no one wishes it was fixed more than I do. But the reality is that the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy — and the Church’s ongoing protection of its predators — is a global, decades-long, human-rights catastrophe. Consider this statement issued last year by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child about the Roman Catholic Church:
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.