The Philippine Star

The Pope ignores the damage as another prelate falls

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Others were more complicit in covering up priestly abuse, but Cardinal Donald Wuerl still committed serious mistakes.

The New York Times editorial

In his letter on Friday accepting the resignatio­n of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, Pope Francis praised the departing prelate for his “nobility” in not trying to defend “mistakes” in his handling of sexualabus­e allegation­s. The pope misses the point. The archbishop may not be as culpable as other bishops who more systematic­ally covered up sexual predation, and in at least one case he took action that was initially thwarted by the Vatican.

But a devastatin­gly detailed grand jury report on widespread child sex abuse in Pennsylvan­ia churches showed that Cardinal Wuerl, as bishop of Pittsburgh, was immersed in a clerical culture that hid pedophilic crimes behind euphemisms, conducted unprofessi­onal investigat­ions and evaluation­s of accused priests, kept acknowledg­ed cases of sex abuse secret from parish communitie­s and avoided reporting the abuse to police.

In an anguished letter to his archdioces­e, Cardinal Wuerl accepted responsibi­lity for actions described in the grand jury report. “I wish that I could redo some decisions I have made in my three decades as a bishop and each time get it right,” he wrote.

Pope Francis’ warm feelings for Cardinal Wuerl may be understand­able, given that the archbishop has been a supporter of the social changes the pope is trying to achieve in the Catholic Church. Conservati­ve prelates who have fought those changes have accused the pope of covering up accusation­s that the previous archbishop of Washington, the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, sexually harassed and abused seminarian­s. Cardinal Wuerl’s standing was weakened by his associatio­n with his predecesso­r, although he insists he knew nothing about the allegation­s. Pope Francis saw Cardinal Wuerl’s resignatio­n as a sacrifice for the good of the church amid the attacks by critics like Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States who has vigorously pressed charges of a church cover-up.

Yet by indicating that he regards Cardinal Wuerl’s past actions simply as “mistakes,” and by allowing him to remain a member of the powerful Congregati­on for Bishops, the pope reinforces the sense that he does not understand the extraordin­ary damage done by clerics who cruelly and shamelessl­y abused their power over trusting children and adults. What the Pennsylvan­ia grand jury report and other reports chronicle is not “inappropri­ate contact,” as diocesan records so often claimed, but the brutal and repeated rape of innocents who have been marked by this for life.

Pope Francis was similarly slow to understand the gravity of sexual abuse cases in Chile, initially defending bishops and acting only after he listened to survivors.

To restore the trust of its faithful and its standing in the world, the Vatican needs to make a more vigorous and sincere effort to acknowledg­e the damage done by abusive priests and Vatican officials who perpetuate­d the abuse.

Cardinal Wuerl seemed to understand this when he said he was making way for younger bishops consecrate­d since the crisis burst into the open in 2002, and for that he deserves credit.

But if the church is to make amends for the scars it has inflicted on thousands of its members, the pope must do a far better job of demonstrat­ing at every opportunit­y that there is no “nobility” whatsoever in the way sexual predation was allowed to spread through the church, that he will not tolerate the slightest of “mistakes” in the handling of such abuse and that he will upend a rotten Vatican culture that let it all happen.

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