ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
February 16, 2019
Vatican officials announced today that disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been formally defrocked for serially abusing minors.
For the sake of his victims, we are grateful that this case has been somewhat resolved. Still, we cannot help but notice the timing of this resolution: the Friday before the pope’s much ballyhooed global abuse summit. We believe that this decision was “fast-tracked” by the hierarchy because it’s so damning:
–a prominent cardinal severely abused his power and prestige to hurt others,
–another prominent cardinal, Donald Wuerl, covered it up and then repeatedly lied about that, and
–Vatican officials kept silent despite repeated warnings about a predator.
This decision comes on the heels of other high-profile scandals for church officials, including the case of Fr. Hermann Geissler, an Austrian priest accused of sexually abusing a nun, resigning as section manager at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), or the resignation of Msgr. Joseph Punderson, a high ranking Vatican canon lawyer, after being exposed in New Jersey as an abuser.
These examples are yet more proof, all in the past few months, that Catholic officials tout but do not practice “transparency.”
It is still possible, and preferable, that criminal charges be filed, not just against Cardinal McCarrick, but also against Church officials who hid his wrongdoing for decades.
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