Pope vows to end sexual abuse coverups, but victims disappointed
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis closed out his extraordinary summit on preventing clergy sex abuse by vowing Sunday to confront abusers with “the wrath of God” felt by the faithful, end the coverups by their superiors and prioritize the victims of this “brazen, aggressive and destructive evil.”
But his failure to offer a concrete action plan to hold bishops accountable when they failed to protect their flocks from predators disappointed survivors, who had expected more from the firstever global Roman Catholic summit of its kind.
Francis delivered his remarks at the end of mass before 190 Roman Catholic bishops and religious superiors who were summoned to Rome after more abuse scandals sparked a credibility crisis in the Catholic hierarchy and in Francis’s own leadership.
“Brothers and sisters, today we find ourselves before a manifestation of brazen, aggressive and destructive evil,” the Pope said.
In a sign of new measures being taken, the Vatican announced that it would soon issue a new law creating a child protection policy for Vatican City State that covers the Holy See bureaucracy.
The Associated Press reported last year that the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church had no such policy, even though it insisted in 2011 that local churches have one and told the United Nations five years ago that a policy for Vatican City was in the works.
“It’s not like there is an enormous diffusion of these crimes inside Vatican City State or the Curia,” summit moderator Rev. Federico Lombardi said. “But since we insist that we need laws and rigorous procedure (elsewhere), they should also exist where we are and in our institutions, starting with the Vatican City State.”
In his final remarks to the summit, Francis noted that the vast majority of sexual abuse happens in the family. And he offered a global review of the broader societal problem of sexual tourism and online pornography, in a bid to contextualize what he said was once a taboo subject.
But he said the sexual abuse of children becomes even more scandalous when it occurs in the Roman Catholic Church, “for it is utterly incompatible with her moral authority and ethical credibility.”
He offered an eight-point pledge of priorities going forward, calling for a change in the church’s defensive mentality and a vow to never again coverup cases.