Vatican calls clergy sex abuse ‘reprehensible’
PHILADELPHIA — The Vatican on Thursday called the conduct of priests and their supervisors that was detailed this week in a blistering grand jury report on clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania “criminal and morally reprehensible.”
“Those acts were betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith,” a papal spokesman said in a statement, released two days after the nearly 900-page report was made public. “The Church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur.”
The statement represented the first public reaction from Rome, and comes as the church has reeled from a fresh wave of sex abuse cases worldwide and questions over Pope Francis’ response to them.
“The Holy Father understands well how much these crimes can shake the faith and the spirit of believers,” the
“Those acts were betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith. The Church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur.”
statement said, “and reiterates the call to make every effort to create a safe environment for minors and vulnerable adults in the Church and in all of society. Victims should know that the Pope is on their side.”
The grand jury report, which stemmed from a two-year investigation, described more than 300 “predator priests” who allegedly abused more than 1,000 victims over seven decades in six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses. The grand jury found that church leaders, including bishops, routinely and deliberately covered up the abuse, casting the victims aside in an effort to protect the church from scandal.
After a group of unnamed clergy members mounted a legal battle to block the report’s release or redact their names from it — arguing they were denied due process or that their reputations will be unfairly harmed — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro wrote to Pope Francis, imploring him to encourage those clergy members to drop their appeals.
“Credible reports indicate that at least two leaders of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania — while not directly challenging the release of this report in court — are behind these efforts to silence the victims and avoid accountability,” Shapiro wrote to the pontiff. “Your Holiness, I respectfully request that you direct church leaders to follow the path you charted ... and abandon their destructive efforts to silence the survivors.”
An attorney for some of the petitioners called the letter an “inappropriate” effort to pressure his clients to back down. The Vatican didn’t publicly respond to Shapiro.