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Pope Francis Opens Summit on Sexual Abuse: ‘Hear the Cry of the Little Ones’ Pope Francis Opens Summit on Sexual Abuse: ‘Hear the Cry of the Little Ones’
(about 1 hour later)
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis opened a historic summit meeting Thursday morning devoted to the scourge of child sexual abuse, an issue that has for decades devastated and eroded faith in some corners of his vast church while being utterly ignored and denied in others. VATICAN CITY — With his moral authority in question and his papal legacy in the balance, Pope Francis opened a historic summit meeting at the Vatican on Thursday devoted to clerical child sexual abuse, an issue that has for decades devastated some corners of his vast church while being utterly ignored and denied in others.
“We hear the cry of the little ones asking for justice,” he said. “The holy people of God look to us and expect from us not simple and obvious condemnations, but concrete and effective measures.” “We hear the cry of the little ones asking for justice,” Francis told the 190 leaders of the Roman Catholic Church who had assembled from around the world in the Vatican’s Synod Hall at the start of a four-day conference intended to instruct them on the depth and universality of the problem and how to deal with it.
Bringing together church leaders from around the world at the Vatican, Francis said that the church was obliged to discuss the extent to which abuse was afflicting the church and humanity in a “sincere and in-depth manner.” “The holy people of God look to us and expect from us not simple and obvious condemnations, but concrete and effective measures,” Francis said.
The pope called the meeting to educate the pastors of his global flock, and he has made it clear that he intends it to be a “catechesis,” meaning that all of the bishops and religious leaders could undergo a conversion of spirit and truly understand the depth and universality of the problem. Survivors of clerical abuse, their advocates and faithful disheartened and disgusted by the failure to address the abuses are demanding that the church enshrine in Canon Law a policy of zero tolerance for abusive priests and the bishops who cover for them.
Many bishops believe that clerical sex abuse of children only exists in the Western or Anglo-Saxon world or is a result of homosexuality in the church, a contention discredited by most scientific studies. That is unlikely to happen at this week’s gathering. Instead Francis has made it clear that he intends the meeting to be a “catechesis” to educate bishops and religious leaders so they can undergo a conversion of spirit on the severity of the crisis.
Survivors of clerical abuse, their advocates and faithful disheartened and disgusted by the church’s failure to find an antidote to the poison coursing through it say that the church could begin to fix the problem only by enshrining in Canon Law a policy of zero tolerance for abusive priests and the bishops who cover for them. [Read more about the Vatican’s hopes for the meeting.]
Speaking in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, Pope Francis addressed the 190 church leaders, including the presidents of many of the world’s bishops’ conferences, men’s and women’s religious orders and powerful cardinals from his committee of top advisers. At Thursday’s session that education included searing prerecorded video testimonials from abuse survivors, including one who was impregnated three times by a priest and forced to have abortions and another who spoke of being abused hundreds of times. None, however, addressed the congress in person.
All of them rose to sing off the same prayer sheet and listened to the Rev. Hans Zollner — an organizer of the meeting, member of the Vatican’s child-protection commission and president of the Center for Child Protection of the Pontifical Gregorian University — read testimony from an unnamed victim who lamented being ignored by the church leaders. “Victims need to be believed,” one pleaded by video, urging bishops to collaborate with civil authorities.
“They didn’t listen to me and my cry,” Father Zollner said, reading from the testimony, followed by a long and haunting silence. In the decades since the crisis first erupted in the United States, where a systemic problem of moving predatory priests from parish to parish spread abuse like a virus, the scourge of abuse has devastated the church around the world.
Minutes earlier, the last bishops, wearing their black cassocks and red sashes and skullcaps, made their way across St. Peter’s Square in the clear morning light. Francis’ own missteps and inaction since his election in 2013 have made it an existential threat to his papacy. After he accused victims of slandering bishops during a trip to Chile early last year, the outcry from victims was fast and furious.
They came amid a backdrop of feverishly high expectations from abuse survivors, many of whom had descended on Rome to meet with the church’s leading officials on the issue. Criticism reached a feverish pitch last summer, when the Pennsylvania attorney general released a scathing grand jury report about abuse in the church and prelates in Francis’ own hierarchy accused him of covering up for abusers.
But they were also there to march, protest and make their anger known to the news media, reflecting the frustration with the Vatican’s inability to confront — and in many parts of the world, even acknowledge — a problem that has devoured the church from within for decades now. Since last year, Francis has himself undergone something of a conversion on the issue, admitting errors, asking forgiveness and growing tough on those who covered up the crimes. He has fired bishops in Chile and last week defrocked the American former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Advocates for other victims of abuse and secrecy in the church, including for the children of priests and for nuns raped by clerics, were also there. They are meeting with church leaders and giving an endless stream of interviews to an army of journalists from around the world who are demonstrating more interest in the Vatican than in perhaps any time since the conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013. [Gay priests, secret rules and the abuse of nuns: Read about some of the Vatican controversies as bishops meet.]
The meeting on Thursday morning will focus on the responsibilities of church leaders, many of whom are still not exactly sure what to do when confronted with accusations of abuse by priests. The theme on Friday is accountability, something that advocates for victims have charged is sorely missing among the church leadership — an accusation that church officials have acknowledged has merit. Francis called the landmark meeting last September with the apparent aim of relieving some pressure, but it has also dramatically increased expectations that after years of talk that the Vatican would finally institute new rules to hold bishops accountable.
Friday will also focus on transparency in addressing the problem, and the church has made much out of its plans to live stream part of the meeting on the internet. On Thursday, as he brought together clerical leaders from around the world, Francis said that the church was obliged to discuss the extent to which abuse was afflicting the church and humanity in a “sincere and in-depth manner.”
They first presentation on Thursday will be given by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, of the Philippines, widely considered a contender to be the next pope, even as he has come under criticism from victims’ groups for his apparent lack of commitment to zero-tolerance policies. Many bishops have long denied that clerical sex abuse of minors was a problem, or suggested that it exists only in the Western or Anglo-Saxon world, or is a result of homosexuality in the church, a contention discredited by most scientific studies.
His talk — titled “Smell of the Sheep: Knowing their pain and healing their wounds is at the heart of the shepherd’s task” — will be followed by questions and working groups. When bishops have acknowledged abuse, they often treated it as a sin to forgive rather than a crime to prosecute, reflexively protected their own and believed bishops over victims.
“Wounds have been inflicted by us bishops” on the faithful, Cardinal Tagle said. He said that the lack of response from church leaders, and the efforts to cover up scandals to protect abusers and the church, had injured its people. Those gathered on Thursday included the presidents of many of the world’s bishops’ conferences, men’s and women’s religious orders and powerful cardinals from his committee of top advisers.
In his own opening remarks, Pope Francis, sitting front and center, again made clear that this was a priority for his church, but also for the legacy of his pontificate. “We need concreteness,” he said, adding that guidelines were helpful but “we don’t want to lose the creativity.” All of them rose to sing off the same prayer sheet and listened to the Rev. Hans Zollner — an organizer of the meeting and a member of the Vatican’s child-protection commission — give voice to victims who lamented being ignored by the church leaders.
“Finally, I ask the Holy Spirit to support us in these days and to help us transform this evil into an opportunity for awareness and purification,” Francis said. He added that he hoped the Virgin Mary “enlightens us to try to cure the serious wounds that the scandal of pedophilia has caused both in children and in the faithful.” “They didn’t listen to me and my cry,” Father Zollner said, followed by a long and haunting silence.
All the church leaders arrived against a backdrop of feverishly high expectations from abuse survivors. Many former victims descended on Rome to meet with the church’s leading officials on the issue.
But they were also there to march, protest and make their anger known to the news media, reflecting the frustration with the Vatican’s inability to confront a problem that has devoured the church from within for decades now.
Advocates for other victims of abuse and secrecy in the church, including for the children of priests and for nuns raped by clerics, were also there.
After the pope spoke on Thursday, the Holy See said the assembled bishops privately watched prerecorded video presentations of testimonials from victims, who were not identified to the news media.
“The first thing they did was to treat me as a liar, turn their backs and tell me that I, and others, were enemies of the Church,’’ one victim, apparently from Chile, said of the church leaders.
‘‘This pattern exists not only in Chile,’’ the victim added. ‘‘It exists all over the world, and this must end.”
Another victim talked about becoming pregnant three times by a priest who started abusing her at age 15, and being forced by him each time to have an abortion.
“Every time I refused to have sex with him, he would beat me,” she said. “And since I was completely dependent on him economically, I suffered all the humiliations he inflicted on me.”
A 53-year-old priest also addressed the conference on a prerecorded video and recounted his own abuse by a priest and not being attacked for it by his bishop.
Another, apparently from Asia, spoke of being sexually molested more than a hundred times, and of being the victim of cover-ups by religious superiors.
“I’ll request the bishops to get their act clear because this is one of the time bombs happening in the church of Asia,” the victim said.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, widely considered a contender to be the next pope, also addressed the gathering.
“Wounds have been inflicted by us bishops” on the faithful, said Cardinal Tagle, who has himself come under criticism from victims’ groups for his apparent lack of commitment to zero-tolerance policies.
He said that the lack of response from church leaders, and the efforts to cover up scandals to protect abusers and the church, had injured its people.
Cardinal Tagle, who is known to grow emotional, choked up as he spoke about how “each of us and our brothers at sisters at home must take responsibility” for bringing healing to victims.
Seeming to touch on the denial of the problem in many parts of the world, he recalled that Jesus’ apostles “fled at the first moment of danger,” with even Peter, considered the rock upon which the church is built, “denying that he even knew the Lord.”
The bishops, he said, needed to face the wounds caused by the church, but he also sought to balance the faith’s belief in mercy and “unconditional love for those who have done wrong” with the need for justice for victims.
That emphasis on mercy for abusive priests was in keeping with the concerns of many of the bishops in the hall, who fear that clergy are being unfairly targeted.
It was also in keeping with Pope Francis’ own past remarks. But such suggestions were likely to enrage victims’ groups, who have grown tired of abstract responses, filled with biblical allegory, and demand concrete solutions.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s leading sex crimes investigator, gave more practical advice to the bishops, many of whom are still not exactly sure what to do when confronted with accusations of abuse by priests.
He insisted that easy-to-use reporting mechanisms needed to be put in place and all protocols closely followed so that people “should know that we mean business.”
He gave the bishops a detailed account of what exactly they were supposed to do and recalled that Pope Benedict XVI was clear on eradicating the root causes of the problem nearly a decade ago.
He talked about how candidates for the priesthood needed to undergo more rigorous screening and that existing rules of canon law needed to be better applied.
With the pope sitting beside him, the archbishop told his audience that the faithful “have the duty and the right” to report abuse and that “civil or domestic laws should be obeyed.”
He instructed them to rely on experts and said that they must apply their judgment, and act in the best interests of children, when the “dilemma” arises of a church trial finding that a priest is not entirely innocent, even if the allegations against him are unproven. Guilty verdicts, he said, should be promptly communicated, publicly, to the faithful.
But some of the bishops in the hall said this was not a new lesson.
“These things are known,” Bishop Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzmán, president of the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference, said as he walked out of the Vatican on his lunch break. “There is nothing new.”
In his own opening remarks, Pope Francis, sitting front and center, again made clear that this was a priority for his church, but also for the legacy of his pontificate. “We need concreteness,” he said.