PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post
Jennifer Sabin
Writer, editor, self-styled political pundit, and former ABC News journalist
Pope Francis just issued his long-awaited statement, Amori Laetitia, calling for less judgment and more tolerance of gays, non-traditional families, and people who are divorced. I applaud his more compassionate approach. But his statement would have had a more profound impact if he had also written the reverse and called for more judgment, less tolerance of Catholic priests who rape children and the bishops who protect them. When is this popular pontiff going to take a stronger stand on sexual abuse?
There’s a line in the movie Spotlight that I haven’t been able to get out of my head:
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”
The sentiment is attributed to attorney Mitch Garabedian (played by Stanley Tucci), who has represented many victims of pedophile priests and was one of the Boston Globe‘s primary sources for the groundbreaking story that is the basis for the Oscar-winning film. It took a village – a city – to protect Boston priests and cover up atrocities against children, and it took a village in Pennsylvania as well – the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown – to permit and cover up the abuse of hundreds of children by fifty Catholic priests. A recently released grand jury report details that abuse and its aftermath, and it is a dark reminder that this has happened all over the country, and indeed, the world. And so it will take a world leader – Pope Francis – to make meaningful change that will begin to fix this horrific problem.
The grand jury report says church officials, including two bishops, “placed their desire to avoid public scandal over the well-being of innocent children.” For over forty years they continued to allow pedophile priests to work with children, did little or nothing to help victims, and kept the law out of their business. In a number of cases, as in Spotlight, those charged with carrying out the law protected the priests and the Catholic Church itself.
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.