WASHINGTON D.C.
Catholic News Service via Catholic San Francisco
December 13, 2020
By Mark Pattison
One month to the day that the Vatican released its report on since-laicized cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a panel of academics took a close look at what one called a “hyperclerical culture” that allowed McCarrick’s sexual misconduct to go unchecked.
“Silence is dangerous,” said John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, a co-sponsor of the Dec 10 dialogue, “The McCarrick Report: Findings, Lessons and Directions,” and who himself had been subject to sexual abuse when he was a seminarian. “Hyperclerical culture can be horrific — and their decisions reflect that.”
“When I read it, I said to myself, no wonder nobody believed me,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in Chile who was later welcomed to the Vatican by Pope Francis to share his experience and recommendations. “The clericalism here, the camaraderie — badly understood camaraderie — the brotherhood of these bishops. It’s appalling, it’s appalling.”
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