By Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
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Well, will miracles never cease? In a church known for compelling confession from its followers, a remarkable one from its chief advocate came across the wires on Friday. That’s right, after decades of lying, obfuscating, blocking, destroying evidence and covering up in the most un-Christian way, Pope Francis has done what many Catholics hoped his predecessors would have done years ago — apologize AND beg forgiveness. Oh, lots of Popes apologize but it’s always with a condition … a term … a little euphemism about one bad apple not spoiling the great work of the barrel, or that the church’s pedophile problem isn’t really any worse than anybody else’s. (Really, every church has a decades old issue of unmarried priests molesting little boys and girls on an institutional level?) Or that it’s just American culture fueling the problem. (Damn justice seekers reading those beatitudes so literally!)
And in an even more remarkable statement from the most protective of secret societies, the new Pope owned it. He owned it in every sense from the philandering priests to their bishop protectors who covered for them and then unleashed the wolves on another unwitting flock. “I feel compelled to personally … ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done…. I feel called to take responsibility for all the evil some priests — large in number, but not in proportion to the total — have committed and to ask forgiveness for the damage they’ve done with the sexual abuse of children,” the Pontiff proclaimed loudly an in public. “We don’t want to take a step backward in dealing with this problem and with the sanctions that must be imposed,” the pope said. “On the contrary, I believe we must be very strong. You don’t play with children’s lives!”
To understand how remarkable this statement is you have to look back to the church’s position on the now world-wide scandal of priest pedophilia. The scandal blew up in 2002 when the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the problem and the church’s almost cavalier approach to dealing with pedophiles in its midst. The series created a stir in Europe too where the crimes were just coming to light. The public reaction from Rome was a curious and deafening silence. It was up to the bishops in the diocese to cleanup their own messes came the private word from Rome to the provinces. The US Conference of Bishops did what every bureaucracy does when accused of scandal — they studied it. And they issued a proclamation stating what we Catholics thought was policy all along, namely that the church owes its child members a”safe environment” in all church activities. Not exactly a mea culpa or even a “we’ve got a hell of problem here Brownie.” Just a statement of the obvious. Old men talked, procedures were adopted, the laity listened and the cover up and abuse continued.
As more and more victims came forward, the church felt the need to react again. And when over 3000 cases were filed seeking billions in damages for victims, the action needed to be higher than at a diocesan or even national level. The reaction from the seat of power was now denial, diminish, and defend. A study was published claiming that only 4% of priests over a 50 year span were suspected of abuse. Then a pious statement in 2003 from then Pope John Paul II: ” there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young”. But behind the scenes the Church had no intention of doing anything besides battening down the hatches. Cardinal George Pell described the mood in Rome:
…The attitude of some people at the Vatican was that if accusations were being made against priests, they were being made exclusively or at least predominantly by enemies of the church to make trouble and therefore they should be dealt with sceptically. I think there was more of an inclination to give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant rather than listen seriously to the complaints…
Publicly, the church was saying all the right things. Adopting procedures for kids to come forward, training laity and priests alike about what to look for when abuse was suspected, but in the litigation wars where the rubber met the road, the rule was scorched earth. A 2014 United Nations report issued scathing criticism of the Vatican’s historical efforts to block investigators and coverup crimes during those times. At the hearing, Sara Oviedo, the chief UN investigator pressed the Vatican delegation on the frequent ways abusive priests were transferred rather than turned in to police. Given the church’s “zero tolerance” policy, she asked, why were there “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?” The church demurred with Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, politely telling the committee, “The Holy See gets it. Let’s not say too late or not. But there are certain things that need to be done differently.” Not all in scarlet vestments were so sanguine, however, with one Vatican emissary issuing this dodge: “Priests are not functionaries of the Vatican,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, told the committee. “Priests are citizens of their own states, and they fall under the jurisdiction of their own country.”
And some in the Curia (the Vatican’s governing bureaucracy) said all this fuss about abusive priests was an American culture problem and its perceived anti-Catholic prejudice and even its ambulance chasing lawyers. A reporter from the National Catholic Reporter put it this way:
No one [in the Vatican] thinks the sexual abuse of kids is unique to the States, but they do think that the reporting on it is uniquely American, fueled by anti-Catholicism and shyster lawyers hustling to tap the deep pockets of the church. And that thinking is tied to the larger perception about American culture, which is that there is a hysteria when it comes to anything sexual, and an incomprehension of the Catholic Church. What that means is that Vatican officials are slower to make the kinds of public statements that most American Catholics want, and when they do make them they are tentative and halfhearted [sic]. It’s not that they don’t feel bad for the victims, but they think the clamor for them to apologize is fed by other factors that they don’t want to capitulate to.
Nasty ol’ Americans with all this sentiment for justice and protecting kids! Who the Hell are they … these sexual deviates?
In ten years following the Boston Globe reports more than $2 billion has been paid out to victims either by way of verdict or settlement; cases of coddled abusers have been reported in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany and Australia; and several catholic diocese have faced the prospect of bankruptcy to protect assets from attachment. Justice seekers exact a high price it seems.
This is the second time Pope Francis has apologized, but the first time he’s condemned the church’s reaction to the scandal. He was not alone. In 2010, then Pope Benedict criticized the church for not being vigilant enough or quick enough in responding to the problem of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. A representative of SNAP, a victim’s advocacy group, responded that the criticism was “disingenuous” because, in her opinion, the Church had in fact been “prompt and vigilant” in concealing the scandal.
Still this Pope Francis seems to actually “get it” and as every Catholic learns about the sacrament of penance “there is no forgiveness without contrition, and no contrition without confession.” Now, the church’s work of emotional and spiritual satisfaction to its victims can begin.
Sources: CNS; SNAP; Huffington Post
~Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
More clergy abuse, secrecy cases
Records detail quiet shifting of rogue priests
By Thomas Farragher and Sacha Pfeiffer
| Globe Staff
December 04, 2002
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/special-reports/2002/12/04/more-clergy-abuse-secrecy-cases/O5QkXOZG73XodD0X5hcPzJ/story.html
Excerpt:
Desperate to contain the burgeoning scandal in the priesthood, the Archdiocese of Boston for years dealt in secret with allegations that a priest had terrorized and beaten his housekeeper, another had traded cocaine for sex, and a third had enticed young girls by claiming to be “the second coming of Christ,” newly released church records show.
In some cases, church officials – including Cardinal Bernard F. Law – reacted to the explosive charges by quietly transferring rogue priests to other parishes and treating them with a gentleness and sensitivity apparently unshaken by the heinous allegations against them.
In 1999, Law, for example, held out the prospect of a return to “appropriate” ministry to a priest who had, years earlier, told church officials that he knew one of his abuse victims had killed himself.
The reports of out-of-control clerical conduct – locked for years in secret church personnel files – became public yesterday after lawyers for alleged victims of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley made 2,200 pages of internal documents on eight priests part of their courtroom file.
They believe the mountain of paperwork, provided by the church under court order, confirms their contention that the church’s mishandling of notoriously abusive priests, including the now-defrocked and imprisoned John J. Geoghan, was standard procedure. They charge that the archdiocese worked furiously to hide its problem without concern for whether the priests would, in later assignments, abuse others – as they often did.
The archdiocese, racked by scandal and pondering bankruptcy, is now faced with the public airing of an archive that describes in sometimes stunning detail how it acted when it learned of sexual attacks by some of its clergy.
Donna M. Morrissey, the spokeswoman for the archdiocese, acknowledged last night that the revelations in the documents are “truly horrendous.” The archdiocese, she said, is “committed to the protection of children.”
Asked whether that was the case during the years covered by the documents, Morrissey replied: “I wish the policy we have now had been in place for the last 50 years. I don’t know what more I can say.”
James Knauer
“Produce Cardinal Law for trial , or quit. Then we will know this pope.”
*****
I agree. The Catholic Church has much to atone for. Actions speak louder than words.
Records show a trail of secrecy, deception
By Walter V. Robinson and Stephen Kurkjian
| Globe Staff
May 01, 2012
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/special-reports/2012/05/01/bgcom-inv-clergy-side/gCUuvYojnYSuIvbwyzHayJ/story.html
Excerpt:
When it came to the Rev. Robert M. Burns and his sexual attraction to boys, the first consideration of the Archdiocese of Boston was secrecy.
In the early 1990s, keeping Burns’s crimes secret preoccupied top aides to Cardinal Bernard F. Law. They plotted how to mislead inquisitive reporters who might ask about Burns. And when a lawsuit against Burns was filed, the Rev. John B. McCormack, now a bishop, noted emphatically, “Papers are impounded – temporarily!”
The bishops also worried about how to squelch rumors. When Bishop Alfred C. Hughes expressed concern about an anonymous letter citing knowledge about Burns’s abuse, McCormack wrote back: “Shall we trace it?”
The cardinal’s aides even drafted a misleading press release, which minimized Burns’s ties to the archdiocese. And when Law ultimately moved to seek Burns removal from the priesthood, his request to the Vatican focused as much on the harm Burns had done to the church’s reputation as it did on the harm Burns had done to children.
“The immoral and illegal activities of Father Burns during his stay in the Archdiocese of Boston are the cause, potential and actual, of grave scandal,” Law wrote to the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
That penchant for secrecy and fear of scandal was shared by Law’s predecessor Cardinal Humberto S. Medeiros and his bishops. It eased the way for Burns to molest children undetected for nine years in parishes in Jamaica Plain and Charlestown.
Medeiros and at least two of his top bishops – Hughes and Thomas V. Daily – knew that Burns had a history of sexual abuse. Even so, they dispatched him to a parish where he would have contact with children – and decided that the pastor should be told nothing of his problems.
The Catholic Church hid the truth for decades. Diocesan officials often moved known sex abusers from one parish to another–where they continued to abuse children. The church hid the truth. These weren’t mere “incidents.” These were heinous crimes committed against children–and they were covered up by the church for years.
*****
Here’s just one of many stories of clergy sex abuse from my state of Massachusetts:
Church allowed abuse by priest for years
Aware of Geoghan record, archdiocese still shuttled him from parish to parish
January 06, 2002
Boston Globe Spotlight Team
Part 1 of 2
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/special-reports/2002/01/06/church-allowed-abuse-priest-for-years/cSHfGkTIrAT25qKGvBuDNM/story.html
Excerpt:
Since the mid-1990s, more than 130 people have come forward with horrific childhood tales about how former priest John J. Geoghan allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes.
Almost always, his victims were grammar school boys. One was just 4 years old.
Then came last July’s disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law knew about Geoghan’s problems in 1984, Law’s first year in Boston, yet approved his transfer to St. Julia’s parish in Weston. Wilson D. Rogers Jr., the cardinal’s attorney, defended the move last summer, saying the archdiocese had medical assurances that each Geoghan reassignment was “appropriate and safe.”
But one of Law’s bishops thought that the 1984 assignment of Geoghan to St. Julia’s was so risky, he wrote the cardinal a letter in protest. And for good reason, the Spotlight Team found: The archdiocese already had substantial evidence of Geoghan’s predatory sexual habits. That included his assertion in 1980 that his repeated abuse of seven boys in one extended family was not a “serious” problem, according to an archdiocesan record.
The St. Julia’s assignment proved disastrous. Geoghan was put in charge of three youth groups, including altar boys. In 1989, he was forced to go on sick leave after more complaints of sexual abuse, and spent months in two institutions that treat sexually abusive priests. Even so, the archdiocese returned him to St. Julia’s, where Geoghan continued to abuse children for another three years.
Now, as Geoghan faces the first of two criminal trials next week, details about his sexual compulsion are likely to be overshadowed by a question that many Catholics find even more troubling: Why did it take a succession of three cardinals and many bishops 34 years to place children out of Geoghan’s reach?
Produce Cardinal Law for trial , or quit. Then we will know this pope.
“Yet, Jesus still loves you, even though you turn your backs on Him.” — Happy Easter to you too, Judge, Jury and Executioner De La Paz
The pedophile priest scandal has been a huge wound in the Catholic Church. These were an unfortunate incidents that have left a noticeable scar on the church that we will have to live with forever.
When it happened, I personally think it was shock wave that ran through the church and the leaders didn’t know how to handle the problem. That’s why it seemed to the public to take so long for the church to face the problem, when in fact, the church leaders were drawn together to determine the problem and how to handle it. They didn’t handle it correctly at first, but over the last 12 years, they have getting to the crux of the problem and improving on handling this humiliating situation.
At this point I could mention that it happens in every walk of life, but the fact is it is within our own family of church believers and needs to be addressed and prevented in the future. I don’t know if it’s a gender problem or a psychological deviant problem, but it must be addressed. Many priest hid behind the sanctity of the church for their own abnormalities.
It has always been the churches belief that no matter how bad an action is, God is ready to be merciful and forgiving. Non-Catholics and faith haters used this as an opportunity to say that the church hid behind it’s “secret society.” Yes, in some cases it did, but the church was also taking time in analyzing, debating and searching for a way to rehabilitate these priests rather than condemn–unfortunately with little to no success.
Although some priests have not been defrocked, most have had duties suspended, forced to resign and retire, and of course, several have been given considerable lengthy prison time–rightfully so. When we compare their prison time to the recent two American layman pedophile’s–one who got 1 year in jail and the other who got probation, the priests are serving their penance far more.
As for some Catholic Diocese’s filing bankruptcy cases, my answer to Justice Holmes is, wouldn’t you do the same to protect your assets? Isn’t that what we pay you lawyers to do? Would you be willing to give up all your assets to pay contrition for your sins. I think not. Stop pointing your finger at one institution (that you dislike) while protecting others that hurt our entire society.
Justice Holmes, your spite and hate for Christianity is showing again. Why don’t you stop living in denial and take a good look at our own government, which is filled with corruption, lies, and is raping the whole American society of it freedoms and constitutional rights. Yet you continue to defend the current corrupt government in Washington, particularly your own party. As for the UN, they have committed more fraudulent acts, personally and collectively, and we’re supposed to listen to them? I think not.
What the priests’ did was wrong and against God. We Christian’s are slam blasted every time priest pedophilia is brought up. We are filled with shame, and pray for mercy, forgiveness, and healing for the victims and those priests.
NO CATHOLIC OR ANY CHRISTIAN is out to abuse children. Children are our most precious blessing on this earth, and we all strive to protect, love, and nurture them. I have always found it so curious that the folks who slam the church and call it an institution of child abusers, have no problem supporting abortion–seems like an oxymoron to me.
The last THREE popes have apologized and asked for forgiveness. All three popes have been working to take care of this horrible problem. The diocese and church administrators have been taking extra precautions to train their staff and all those who work with all people, particularly children.
However, it is those filled with hateful hearts who keep rehashing this sensitive situation in an effort to spew their vengeful words towards the church, which was founded by Jesus Christ. Yet, Jesus still loves you, even though you turn your backs on Him.
It’s Easter week–what perfect time for the rancorous to keep pounding the nails deeper into His hands and feet.
Karen, Yes. They are referred to in some states as “mandated reporters.” They are required to report, w/ sanctions if the don’t. Teachers, counselors, medical professionals are all mandated reporters.
And I absolutely agree that pedophile priests should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Isn’t there a law by which we can prosecute anyone who fails to report suspected child molestation to the police? I think that certain job positions require it, like teachers, but shouldn’t it be true of anyone?
This might clear up that there is no crossover between adult attraction and pedophilia:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html
Oh, and to clear up the “gay pedophile” issue:
Heterosexuals prefer adult partners of the opposite sex.
Homosexuals prefer adult partners of the same sex.
Pedophiles can be broken down into subgroups: those who prefer opposite sex victims, and those who prefer same sex victims. There are more heterosexual pedophiles, and most incest cases fall in this case. There are less homosexual pedophiles, but those who prey on male children are more prolific, and have a higher number of victims.
So a gay man is not a pedophile. A homosexual pedophile is more attracted to male children than to male men. A heterosexual pedophile is more attracted to opposite sex children than to adults.
I hope I am explaining this clearly. If someone is attracted to men, he will not be attracted to young boys, and vice versa. However, pedophiles can try to “pass” by engaging in relationships with adults to hide their true nature.
We should address the dynamic of prosecution and sentencing. First, any pedophile priest should be prosecuted in a court of law, not in some ecclesiastical court. Sentencing should be an eye for an eye sort of thing. Speaking of thing, pardon the pun, but cut off the thing. The other moving parts as well and we are not talking ball bearings here. Once you have punished a pedophile priest in this manner he is unlikely to assault a child again and he is likely to be an example to others as to what lies in store. Two offenses should be a capital crime. Hang em. By the ……
For anyone unfamiliar with Catholic confession:
http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/p/Why_Confession.htm
Catholics can make an act of contrition privately, without involving a priest. They are supposed to go to Confession when they have committed a mortal sin, or at least once a year.
The confessional has 2 options: a screen which hides the identity of the person confessing, or an open window where the priest and parishioner can speak fact to face. The person confessing chooses which he or she would prefer.
Catholicism is the only major religion I am aware of that requires an annual confession with a priest. Jewish Confession, I believe, requires that no one else be present, and that it is private between God and the person.
JT:
“As I have written before, this Pope truly seems genuine and guided by the best of values of the Catholic Church. I have always found it remarkable that there are many pushing for deification of the last Pope when Pope Francis has transformed this Church and its priesthood in a relatively short time.”
*********************
Not so remarkable. No good deed (against the power structure) ever goes unpunished and no bad deed (on behalf of the power structure) goes unrewarded. Cui bono? Payoff for covering up? Benedict was, after all, the guy who headed up the Holy Inquisition and told priests not to report abuse. Call me Machiavelli but I recall “Judge Bybee’s reward.
Time to be PC (pedophillia correct:
(Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation).
Bron, Pedophiles do have sexual preference. My wife did MANY presentences of child porn beasts. The large majority have a specific age group and SPECIFIC sexual preference. It is a myth that pedophiles go after both sexes. That’s not to say some aren’t bisexual, just like some normal people are. I sense this myth is PC. AGAIN, most pedophiles are hetero, just like most normal people.
As Dennis Miller says, if you can’t keep yourself from hurting kids you have to do the right thing. You need to kill yourself.
Byron:
“In my mind, a confirmed pedophile should either be shot or put away for life. You cant change them and they are predators.”
**********************
I really think you’re limiting yourself. Why not both?
Nick Spinelli,
…
Can we put the freakin’ PC aside and accept the obvious facts regarding the priest scandal??? It DOES NOT MEAN most pedophiles are homosexual.
===============
You are the one who can’t lose the PC thingy.
It is a myth you bring up daily.
Everything should be done right.
Religion (RC religiously correct), politics (PC), science (SC), and analysis (AC analytically correct).
This PC hangup you bring up is utterly meaningless.
Perversion is not correct on any wavelength, including the PC wavelength that is always bursting your balls.
So, yeah, see if you can lose it and not bring it up so you don’t have to get mad at yourself.
nick:
I think pedophilia is a behavior unto itself. I am pretty sure pedophiles abuse male and female children, it isnt the sex of the child that matters but the age.
In my mind, a confirmed pedophile should either be shot or put away for life. You cant change them and they are predators.
Just one other operator in this whole mess. Hint:
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
Jud 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
But, make no mistake, there are haters who don’t give a rat’s ass about the victims.