UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Early this week, Pope Francis met with his select group of cardinals mainly to review matters relating to the Vatican financial scandals. Over 180 cardinals then met in two closed sessions with Pope Francis this week to reconsider the Catholic Church’s rules on marriage and the family and the related sexual morality issues. Only cardinals attended these meetings. Also on Friday, US Cardinal Burke reportedly confirmed in the Vatican newspaper Pope Francis’ continuing opposition to gay marriage and abortion.
No consideration seemingly was given by Pope Francis to addressing with the world’s cardinals fully assembled the worldwide Church scandal of priest child abuse or related lack of bishop accountability.
Meanwhile a prominent US legal expert, Professor Marci Hamilton, called on President Obama to step up and address the epidemic of sexual abuse of children by religious institutions as noted here:
[Verdict]
And, Betty Clermont, the author of “The Neo-Catholics”, also called on President Obama to cancel his March 27 meeting with Pope Francis mainly in light of the recent UN report severely criticizing the Vatican’s policies relating to children and the Vatican’s evasive response to the UN report as noted here:
These calls are in addition to my recent advice as a retired international lawyer to President Obama noted here:
After a long presentation to the 180+ cardinals by highly regarded German Cardinal Walter Kasper on the topic of family life on Thursday morning, 43 other cardinals made responsive remarks. Among the key topics reportedly discussed were how to treat Catholics who divorce and remarry and still seek to receive the Catholic sacraments and how to simplify annulment procedures.
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.