UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
There’s a wealth of outstanding commentary yesterday and today about the Vatican’s grilling by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. One way that you can keep abreast of the commentary is by visiting Kathy Shaw’s marvelous Abuse Tracker site sponsored by Bishop Accountability. Among the good articles I’ve read up to now:
Kris Ward, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, who responds to the claim of Bishop Charles Scicluna that the Vatican is “getting it” about child abuse:
Not only is “getting it” not an accomplishment, it’s not an “ah hah” moment, it’s not even Christianity.
Getting the rape and sodomy of children is basic humanity.
Raping and sodomizing children is criminal.
Luring children into situations where you can rape and sodomized them is criminal.
This is not a complex theological argument.
Barbara Dorris, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, asks what on earth Pope Francis imagined he was communicating when he chose to concelebrate Mass with Cardinal Roger Mahony on the very day of the UN hearing:
Pope Francis just rubbed salt into the wounds of LA clergy sex abuse victims and Catholics.
Maybe more than any of his predecessors, Pope Francis is keenly aware that images and gestures matter. So why did he concelebrate mass and privately meet with America’s least deserving and most polarizing retired Catholic official – Cardinal Roger Mahony, on whose watch hundreds of children were raped, sodomized, fondled and assaulted by hundreds of priests, nuns, brothers, seminarians and other Catholic employees, many of whom were deliberately and repeatedly moved and protected by Mahony and his top aides?
Anthea Butler, Religion Dispatches: after noting that Pope Francis may have made a “misstep” in concelebrating Mass with Mahony, Anthea notes, as I did yesterday, the weakness of the Vatican argument that it has no control over the actions of bishops and dioceses around the world:
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.