UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
By David Clohessy, director of SNAP (davidgclohessy@gmail.com, 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)
Francis has done more about the abuse crisis than his predecessors. Isn’t that encouraging?
First, we should judge church officials NOT by what their terrible predecessors did but by what responsible officials would do. It’s little comfort to a girl who’s been raped under Francis to say “Well, under Benedict, there might have been an even smaller chance of your predator being ousted.”
Neither Benedict nor Francis has exposed a single child molesting cleric or really punished a single complicit church official. They’ve made lots of reassuring talk but taken little meaningful action.
But several bishops have been forced out because of abuse. Isn’t that good news?
We don’t think this is true. A tiny handful of bishops (Finn in Kansas City, Nienstedt and Piche in St. Paul) have resigned. Were they forced out? Who knows. Continued Vatican secrecy means that no one can be sure whether they were forced and if so, what the real reason or reasons might have been.
There’s nothing new about bishops resigning, while keeping their titles and paychecks and honors. A pope firing bishops would be new. And it would deter wrongdoing. But it didn’t happen under Benedict and it isn’t happening under Francis.
What about the Paraguay bishop? Francis ousted him.
That’s true. But within hours, the official papal spokesman said that this move was NOT because the bishop mishandled abuse. (Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano had promoted Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, who has been described by bishops from Switzerland to Pennsylvania as ‘dangerous,’ ‘abnormal,’ and ‘a serious threat to young people’ and against whom a $400,000 settlement was paid.)
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