ALLENTOWN (PA)
Allentown Call
February 25, 2019
By Paul Muschick
The papal summit that wrapped up at the Vatican on Sunday to address sex abuse in the Catholic church went where I expected it would. Nowhere.
It was just more talk. We must take this problem seriously, Pope Francis said. We’re going to do this. We’re going to do that.
So do it already.
The longer the church delays taking action, the harder it gets to have faith that it ever will appropriately address this plague. Talk is cheap.
By calling together leaders from around the world to meet for four days, Francis set high expectations. He should have been ready to implement a concrete plan of action, and called on the global leaders to publicly endorse it. Instead, the weekend was full of more mea culpas. During his concluding address, Francis just rattled off a host of talking points.
There was plenty of time to prepare. The Pennsylvania grand jury investigation that brought this issue back into the spotlight in the U.S. was released six months ago. The pressure has mounted since, with other states launching similar probes. There have been scandals in Chile, Australia and Honduras, too.
The church no longer can address them one-by-one. It needs to take a hard stand.
What should it be doing?
For starters, any clergy — a priest, a bishop, a cardinal — proven to have looked the other way when confronted with abuse allegations should be banished from the church. It goes without saying that those who commit the abuse should be banished, too.
There should be a global requirement to report allegations to law enforcement. And the Vatican should open its files so the world can get a better grip on just how extensive the abuse, and any cover-ups, really are.
The lack of action is especially disappointing because bishops in the United States were prepared to take action in November, until Pope Francis told them not to.
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