"Irish abuse survivor wants an action plan from the pope, not an apology"
The pope promises action on clerical sexual abuse. Again.
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
Feb. 25, 2019
Daniel Stolle
To many Roman Catholics worldwide, the very fact of senior bishops listening to victims of clerical sexual abuse .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/world/europe/pope-francis-church-abuse.html?module=inline .. and the pope condemning the evil in vivid language no doubt came as a shock. The main body of the church has long shifted away from the United States and Western Europe, and the faithful in Africa, Asia and Latin America have not yet confronted the blight of predatory clergymen and institutional deafness to the extent of Americans or Europeans.
That is likely to be the explanation given by the Vatican for the lack of concrete measures to combat the crisis after a meeting .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/world/europe/pope-francis-church-abuse.html?module=inline .. heralded as a mighty counterattack by hierarchy and its activist pope against the evil ravaging their church: The global flock needs to see and hear first, and the change must arise from their own episcopate, they’ll say.
It doesn’t wash because what is happening is not a personal moral lapse, to be treated as a sin to address through penitence and prayer, but a crime in which the church has been an accomplice. Priests who are credibly shown to abuse children should be thrown out of the pulpit and identified to civil authority; bishops who cover up their actions should be laicized and exposed, and the order to do so must come from the top, from the pontiff.
The church has always been harsh on matters of sex, whether demanding celibacy of its priests, condemning birth control or prohibiting homosexual sex. Once the pope publicly acknowledges that priestly pedophilia is prevalent, the shock will not be softened by deferring action.
Of course, it is important that the church investigate what in its culture gives rise to such perversity. Pope Francis has demonstrated an admirable openness on many once-taboo issues, and his anguished remarks on the clerical abuse scandal no doubt come from the heart.
But a malignancy whose primary victims are trusting children must be treated by immediate and radical measures, not by appeals or hand-wringing. The time for that is past.
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