UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Last week, I noted that it was being reported that the Vatican is informing newly appointed bishops that they do not have an obligation to report sexual abuse of minors by priests to criminal officials. As I noted, reports were indicating that, in issuing such advice to new bishops, the Vatican was relying on a training manual by French priest Tony Anatrella. Anatrella is a well-known opponent of “gender theory” and of more affirming approaches to LGBT people, and he seems intent on continuing the scapegoating meme that seeks to make gay priests responsible for the abuse crisis.
A footnote to the preceding report: as Rosie Scammell notes for Religion News Service yesterday, the head of the papal commission on abuse, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, underscored in a statement on Monday that church officials do have an obligation to report clerical abuse of minors to the civil authorities. In a report for The Guardian yesterday, Stephanie Kirchgaessner puts this statement into the broader context of a rift within the Vatican’s Curia about the handling of abuse cases.
She reports,
A battle is being waged within the Vatican over how senior clergy ought to handle accusations of sexual abuse amid signs that a special commission created by Pope Francis to handle the issue is being sidelined by senior church officials in Rome.
The rift was exposed after a report in the Guardian about a training course that was offered to new bishops last year in which a controversial French monsignor instructed them that it was “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of abuse to law enforcement authorities if local laws did not require it.
That stance was rejected this week by Pope Francis’s point man on abuse issues, Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley, who heads a special pontifical commission to protect minors.
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