ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
January 1, 2019
A newly published letter from officials at the Vatican to the head of American bishops has called into question the reasons for the scuttling of proposed church accountability reform from last November. Ultimately, however, the letter is both irrelevant to the church’s pattern of inaction on clergy abuse and to the urgent need for reform to come and come quickly.
We take no position on the finger-pointing between Cardinals Marc Ouellet and Daniel DiNardo, other than to note that it is extremely disappointing that once again Pope Francis seems more willing to discipline a bishop for insubordination than for covering up sex crimes. But in this case, whether it was the Vatican or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB) who is most to blame in this specific instance of failing to act on clergy abuse and bishop accountability means little. The fact is, at the end of the day, there was still a failure to act as the reforms were never discussed and promises went unfulfilled.
The proposed updates to policies and the creation of codes of conduct were, at best, half-measures. But their passage would have been at least a sign that a key message was getting through: that there must be accountability not just for the abusers, but equally so for those that enabled and concealed them. In order to prevent future crimes, we must be able to have faith that wrongdoers will be brought to law enforcement, not shuffled and concealed, and only when prelates are brought to justice for their role in that concealment will that faith be restored.
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