Pope must put words into action

POPE Francis’ unprecedented letter condemning the “crimes” of child sex abuse by priests and vowing to end the cover-ups while welcome will not be enough for many Catholics.

They will rightly claim there have been similar promises in the past which were never fulfilled while the cover-ups continued.

The Vatican has stressed this Pope had written to all of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse whereas in the past, correspondence on the scandal were sent to bishops and the faithful in individual countries.

On the other hand the Pope’s letter does not lay out any concrete steps the Vatican would take to prevent cover-ups in the future.

In the past the Catholic Church has reacted to breaking scandals in a similar manner by issuing profuse apologies to victims while vowing all those who abused would be exposed.

This all comes after the largest ever investigation of sex abuse in the US Catholic Church last week which found 301 priests had sexually abused minors over the past 70 years.

Indeed the scheduled keynote speaker at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin this weekend would be preaching to the faithful if not for the work of the grand jury.

The Pope’s letter also comes as the Church faces sexual abuse scandals in other countries, including Australia and Chile.

Words are cheap so Pope Francis must personally address the issue of abuse this weekend.