Pope Francis needs to be focused on sexual cover-ups

www.mangaloretoday.com

By Father William Grimm

Chile, Feb 4, 2018: In various statements and actions, the pope has shown that he is deeply sympathetic toward those who have been sexually abused in childhood by priests. However, it has also been increasingly clear for a long time that he refuses to admit or act on the fact that the real villains have been religious superiors and bishops who covered up the actions of sick men. Not only have they often protected predators, they have moved them around to new fields of action where they could harm yet more young people.

Why has Pope Francis, who rails against the clericalism that underlies so many of the sins of commission and omission of ecclesiastical leaders, not been more forthright in his response?

One reason may be that in his own time as a bishop in Argentina he was guilty of the same sort of cover-up and enabling.

It has recently come to light that since 1974 bishops have been bound by a "pontifical secret" that requires them to keep situations of abuse secret. Only in 2010 was provision made to allow bishops to report abuse when civil law required it.

In other words, in order to protect themselves from civil penalties rather than to protect children, bishops could report abuse. Apparently, in the absence of such civil law requirements, the rule of secrecy still applies. This goes beyond being a license to cover up abuse to constituting a near mandate that it be done, thus fostering further abuse.

I learned from the sisters who taught me the catechism as a boy that one must not obey an evil command, no matter who issues it. Apparently, a lot of bishops learned a different catechism. Maybe that was one of the qualifications for their being made bishops.

Jorge Bergoglio became a bishop in 1992 and archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and presumably carried out his episcopal duties governed by the restrictions of that secret. Since Argentine priests are no less likely to commit abuse than those of other nations, it is likely that Archbishop Bergoglio knew of such cases and kept them secret. Perhaps he even actively engaged in covering up abuse by moving offending clerics.

If so, it is understandable, though not excusable, that his sympathies might lie with bishops who, regardless of their personal feelings, did what evil they thought that they must perpetrate, however wrong that judgment was.

In any case, on his recent trip to Chile and Peru, the pope went beyond what misguided sympathy toward fellow bishops might seem to call for.

Though several people abused by a notorious Chilean pedophile priest have accused Bishop Juan Barros Madrid of covering up the priest’s actions, the pope says he has not yet seen "evidence" to convince him that he must act. In writing off the testimony of the victims without actually meeting and hearing them, Pope Francis has dealt a blow to all abuse survivors who have faced years of being disbelieved.

This is not to say that Bishop Barros is guilty. Like anyone else, he is entitled to be exonerated or condemned based upon evidence. But the pope’s refusal to consider the testimony of victims without stating clearly what he would consider to be evidence short-circuits any possibility of a resolution of the situation.  What are we to make of this, especially those of us who are fans of Pope Francis?

People like Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has voiced his concern, have more access and influence than we with Pope Francis and can deal with him directly.  For the rest of us, two things are possible and necessary.

The first is to recognize that even the pope needs to use deodorant. Perhaps we have idealized the man too much, forgetting that he has the same clay feet as the rest of us. Less idealizing means more recognition of the need to forgive and more willingness to see that Pope Francis, like myself, is a work in progress. He needs to grow, as I do, and when we pray for him in the Eucharistic Prayer, we should pray for his growth.

The next thing to do is to break the habit of idealizing people whom we admire. In fairness, we owe it to them to deal with them as fallible human beings. They know that they are merely people. Just like our mothers.