KEY WEST (FL)
Crux
Nov. 17, 2019
By John L. Allen Jr.
Since last summer’s twin eruptions of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and the scandals surrounding ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick, many Catholics have found themselves wondering if anything’s truly changed in the Church vis-à-vis the clerical abuse scandals.
After decades of crisis and repeated vows of reform, they ask, is it possible the Church still doesn’t get it?
Over the last fortnight, a constellation of events spanning different continents and time zones has issued a reminder that the answer to that question is messy, complicated and classically Catholic – it’s both/and, yes and no. In other words, we’re probably living right now, as generations of Catholics before have on other fronts and in other circumstances, in both the best and the worst of times.
Those recent events which have helped tell the tale include:
A Nov. 6-8 workshop on the abuse scandals in Latin America organized by CEPROME, an interdisciplinary center for child protection in the Pontifical University of Mexico.
A Nov. 13 forum at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend featuring Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s point man on the clerical abuse issue.
A Nov. 14-15 international conference on “Promoting Digital Child Dignity,” held at the Vatican under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, as a follow-up to a 2017 summit on child protection in the digital realm held at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University.
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