ATLANTA (GA)
CNN
December 3, 2018
By Paul Snyder
The Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse allegations:
Length: 2:45
Editor’s Note: Paul Snyder is a Catholic deacon in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York. He is also the Chairman of Snyder Corp., a privately held investment company founded in 1958 with interests in the hospitality, real estate, software and transportation industries, and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. View more opinion on CNN.
We all regret some decisions in life; for me, it was my choice not to learn Spanish. So, in my search to find the one word that could capture the essence of Pope Francis, it is with much irony that the language of Spain would give me the most appropriate one: Dictablanda!
For those like me who “no hablo espanol,” Dictablanda is a Spanish pun for a benevolent dictator. It is also the description that best suits our Holy Father and the Roman Curia. In this instance, it is not a funny pun.
Like many Catholics, I have a sincere love for Pope Francis. Yet I was shocked to learn of the extraordinary restrictions he placed upon the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the opening day of their conference last month. It was convened to deal with the catastrophic sex abuse crisis affecting our church.
Specifically, the president of the conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, told the bishops, “At the insistence of the Holy See we will not be voting on the two action items.” He was referring to a planned vote on a code of conduct, “the first such ethical guidelines for bishops on sex abuse issues, and to establish a lay commission capable of investigating bishops’ misconduct,” according to The Washington Post.
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