Pope schedules summit on abuse, protecting children
Church leaders to meet as scandal threatens Francis’ legacy
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis summoned the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences Wednesday to a summit on preventing clergy sex abuse and protecting children, responding to the greatest crisis of his papacy with the realization that Vatican inaction on the growing global scandal threatens his legacy.
Francis’ key cardinal advisers announced plans for the summit early next year, the day before the pope meets with U.S. church leaders embroiled in their own credibility crisis from the latest accusations in the Catholic Church’s decadeslong sex abuse scandal.
The meeting, set for Feb. 21-24, would assemble more than 100 churchmen, representing every bishops’ conference. Its convening signals awareness at the highest levels of the Catholic Church that clergy sex abuse is a global problem.
Victims’ advocates immediately dismissed the event as belated damage control, an action publicized hastily as allegations regarding Francis’ record of handling abuse cases — and accumulated outrage among rank-and-file Catholic faithful over covered-up crimes — jeopardize his papacy.
“There’s absolutely no reason to think any good will come of such a meeting,” given the church’s decades of failure to reform, David Clohessy, former director of the victims’ advocacy group SNAP, said.
“Criminal prosecutions, governmental investigations and journalistic exposes — stemming from brave victims and church whistle-blowers — are the best way to protect kids, expose wrongdoers and end cover-ups,” Clohessy said.
The summit was announced as Francis still works to recover from his botched handling of the sex abuse scandal in the Chilean church, sparked earlier this year when he repeatedly discredited victims of a notorious Chilean predator priest.
Francis eventually admitted “grave errors in judgment” and took steps to make amends, including securing offers of resignation from every active member of Chile’s bishops’ conference.
Even as actions to address Chile were underway, Francis’ papacy was jolted last month by accusations from a retired Vatican ambassador that Francis himself rehabilitated a top American cardinal accused of molesting and harassing adult seminarians.
The Vatican hasn’t responded to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s allegations against the pope and some two dozen other Vatican and U.S. officials, but has promised “clarifications” that could come after Francis’ meeting Thursday with the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. delegation will be headed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and includes Francis’ top adviser on the clergy abuse issue, Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
DiNardo has said he wants Francis to authorize a full Vatican investigation of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was removed as cardinal in July following a credible accusation that he groped a teenager.