(ITALY)
BishopAccountability.org [Waltham MA]
May 6, 2025
By Bishop Accountability
Your Eminence,
The task you face this week inspires awe. You have acknowledged in your general meetings that sexual abuse is a major challenge facing the next pope. This crisis will continue to undermine the moral authority and good works of the church for decades if the pope you choose does not dramatically change your laws and practices.
Change is possible. We have seen individual acts of brilliance, of godliness, and true grace by some Catholic prelates – singular instances of a bishop breaking rank in order to protect children and heal the wounded.
The next pope must be capable of such love and bravery.
Consider the list below. These are ten actions that the next pope could take. All could be launched in the first 100 days, and some could be completed in that time. Although just a start, such actions would begin to turn the page on this catastrophic chapter in the church’s story. The pope would be showing the world that he is ready, once and for all, to eliminate the horror of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
The global community of Catholics is praying that you will make the right choice. The safety of the many millions of precious children is at stake.
Godspeed as you enter the conclave.
Respectfully,
Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org, anne@bishop-accountability.org
Ann Hagan Webb, EdD, Board of Directors, BishopAccountability.org, annhaganwebb@gmail.com
Ten powerful safeguarding actions the next Pope should take
- Remove and demote 10 complicit bishops in the first 100 days of the new papacy. Explain publicly, in some detail, the reasons for each bishop’s removal. Use as a template the case of Theodore McCarrick, emulating the severe penalties levied by Pope Francis and the public accounting of how the case was handled internally.
- Appoint a whistleblower priest and an outspoken abuse survivor to head the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Make the commission an effective watchdog. Empower it to speak out against acts of cover-up by individual bishops and religious superiors.
- Universalize the “zero tolerance” canonical norm that has been in effect for the U.S. church for more than two decades. That is, change canon 1398 so that any cleric found guilty of even a single act of child sexual abuse, no matter when the act occurred, will be removed permanently from ministry.
- Require bishops to hire independent, trained corrections staff to house and monitor child-molesting clerics in remote, secure facilities so they will be kept away from children.
- Rescind the Holy See’s pending agreement with the government of Bolivia that allows the church to withhold abuse files from Bolivian prosecutors. Begin the process of revising all concordats so that the immunities granted to Catholic officials do not apply to alleged sex crimes by Catholic clergy and personnel. Tell the new Secretary of State that going forward, the Holy See’s default response to requests by other countries for abuse-related files and information will be yes, not no.
- Change canon 489 to prohibit the destruction of abuse-related files.
- Change canon law to require clergy and church personnel to notify civil authorities of all known and suspected child sexual abuse allegations, whether or not local law requires it.
- Prohibit bishops and clergy from lobbying in any form against reforms of secular statutes of limitation for child sex crimes.
- Start to publish a registry of clergy and female religious who have been found guilty under canon law of sex crimes against children and vulnerable adults. We understand that the list includes thousands. As a start, post 500-1000 names in the first 100 days. Detail the crimes and any cover-up of the crimes, while protecting the anonymity of victims. Include both living and deceased clergy.
- Require bishops’ conferences and religious orders to make reparations to victims.