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Jerry Slevin on Jennifer Haselberger’s Affidavit: “It Underscores That Francis’ Calculated and Ineffective Approach to Facing the Catholic Church’s Greatest Challenge in Centuries Will Likely Be a Failure”
William D. Lindsey
In response to Brian Roewe’s report today at National Catholic Reporter about Jennifer Haselberger’s affidavit in the sexual abuse lawsuit involving the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Harvard-trained international lawyer Jerry Slevin writes,
Her affidavit provides detailed evidence of how a major diocese covered up numerous cases of priest sexual abuse that continued even after Pope Francis’ election and may still be going on. It underscores that Francis’ calculated and ineffective approach to facing the Catholic Church’s greatest challenge in centuries will likely be a failure.
Not a single bishop to date has been removed for covering up for child predator priests.
The affidavit includes revealing and disturbing looks at some of the US hierarchy’s key players: (1) Archbishop Harry Flynn, one of the leaders of the US bishops’ purported child protection “reform program”, (2) Archbishop John Nienstedt, a top anti-gay marriage culture warrior subject now also to an investigation of alleged earlier hypocritical gay relationships, and (3) Fr. Kevin McDonough, a former Minneapolis vicar general and older brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough.
Jerry’s absolutely correct. He argues that Pope Francis’s decision to prioritize the Vatican’s financial scandals while dragging his feet on the abuse crisis has been a serious mistake, and that his vague, half-hearted, ineffectual gestures to date in the direction of accountability and transparency in addressing the abuse crisis suggest that “he hasn’t changed much from when he exhibited a clearly underwhelming approach to curtailing priest abusers in Argentina.”
In Jerry’s view, unless Francis wakes up soon and begins to deal with the mess on full display in Jennifer Haselberger’s affidavit (and, as Jerry notes, we can reasonably infer from abundant evidence that the crimes are continuing even now throughout the Catholic world), his papacy will have been a failure.
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