Pope asks forgiveness for ‘evil’ of child abuse by priests

[Wesley]

http://www.euronews.com/newswires/2447060-pope-francis-asks-forgiveness-for-priests-who-abused-children/

 

 

Pope Francis made his first public plea for forgiveness on Friday for the “evil” committed by priests who molested children, using some of his strongest words yet on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.

The Argentine-born pontiff said the Church, which last month named a high-level group on the scandal including an abuse victim, had to take an stronger stand on a scandal that has haunted it for more than two decades, and indicated there would be repercussions for perpetrators.

“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that some priests – quite a few in number, (although) obviously not compared to the number of all priests – to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,” he told members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.

“The church is aware of this … personal, moral damage carried out by men of the church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and to the sanctions that must be imposed.

“On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children,” Francis said in unscripted comments as he addressed the children’s rights body.

The comments, originally in Spanish, were translated by the Vatican Radio news service.

Francis did not specify whether “sanctions” would be church-enforced or involve civil justice authorities. In February the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of abuse and attempting to cover up sex crimes.

The scathing report urged the church to immediately hand over its records on the abuse of tens of thousands of children, immediately remove anyone suspected of abuse from their post and refer the matter to civil legal authorities. The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.

Francis’ words strike a different tone to comments he made in March to an Italian newspaper in which he defended the church’s record.

“The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more, and yet the church is the only one that is being attacked,” he was quoted as saying by Corriere della Sera in comments decried by victims’ rights groups.

“JUST TALK”

Criticism that Francis has not taken a bold enough stand on the issue, and did not meet sexual abuse victims in Italy and in a July trip to Brazil, has been a rare black spot in the overwhelmingly positive response to the pontiff in the 13 months he has been in office.

In particular, abuse groups have called on the church to discipline bishops accused of moving known child molesters from parish to parish, allowing abuse to continue.

“It’s nice to have expressions of concern. But actions need to happen, and people have been waiting an awfully long time for that to occur,” said Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which documents abuse cases.

“The best thing he could have done today would have been to step up to the microphone and announce that he is beginning to remove bishops who have behaved criminally in keeping priests in ministries where they don’t belong, moving them around so that they continue to be a danger to children.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which advocates for child protection and urges greater transparency in the church, said Francis’ words should be received with caution.

“We beg the world’s Catholics: be impressed by deeds, not words. Until the pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be sceptical and vigilant,” SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said.

“This may be the first time a pope has talked of sanctions against complicit bishops. But that is all it is: talk.”

Under Francis’ direction, the Vatican announced in December the creation of a new dedicated group to help the church deal with the abuse crisis. Its members were named in late March.

The body of clerics and lay people includes Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse in Ireland in the 1960s who has campaigned for the protection of children and for justice for victims.

Collins, a founding trustee of the Irish abuse victims’ organisation One in Four, has in the past pushed for punishment for bishops who failed to implement church rules on the protection of children.

Child abuse litigation has cost the Catholic Church some $3 billion (1.7 billion pounds) in settlements in the United States alone, and shaken the moral authority of leaders of the world’s largest religious denomination.

[dsayers]

How abstract. Maybe if the individual offenders expressed remorse and made restitution, that individual offender would be ELIGIBLE for forgiveness by his VICTIM. Otherwise, this is simply saying, "Please regard us as if these things hadn't happened."

[st434u]

I'm from Argentina and this is without a doubt the worst Pope in my lifetime. Of course being an almost entirely Catholic country, everybody here is super excited about him being the Pope.

 

He's a hardcore socialist (which is to be expected coming from Argentina), and he loves all kinds of theft, not just by the State. He loves to defend the rights of common criminals but couldn't care less about the rights of the virtuous.

[Daniel Unplugged]

Doesn't the pope have the authority to forgive people on god's behalf? I suppose that would have pushing it a little. If he said outright "I forgive the child rapists" people might think of him a little differently. He very strategically palmed this one off to god.

 

Of course, he doesn't feel the least bit bad about it all, otherwise he would use his authority to have the church release all evidence of abuse to the authorities, and demand that the perpetrators are brought to justice.

 

He knows who they are, he knows what they did. Still he protects them, still he covers up their crimes. Still he is worshipped by hundreds of millions of Catholics worldwide.

[Jeff W.]

What's he have to offer in return, a smile, a bow?

[Daniel Unplugged]

What's he have to offer in return, a smile, a bow?

He is the head of a very profitable multinational organization. He could offer them monetary compensation, but only in return for their silence of course. Doing it out of remorse is never going to happen. He will only do it if he has something to gain from it. Sociopaths do not sympathize with their victims, they only wish to exploit them further.

[Jeff W.]

He is the head of a very profitable multinational organization. He could offer them monetary compensation, but only in return for their silence of course. Doing it out of remorse is never going to happen. He will only do it if he has something to gain from it. Sociopaths do not sympathize with their victims, they only wish to exploit them further.

Right...but that's not typically how these things play out. My comment was sarcastic because in all likelihood he thinks the apology is enough and that "I'm sorry" or "we're sorry," or what have you, makes it a moot issue of expected forgiveness.

[PatrickC]

Yes, it does seem that like european Protestantism, Catholicism has decided to go down the 'Leftist' (political weasel) route... 'Words' have always appeared to have been more productive in the desire to evade responsibility for the left minded, than the actual 'deeds' themselves. It also makes sense mind, because the church has always been inherently pro state and pro culture too and will happily metamorphosis into whatever the prevailing thoughts are of the time.

[massaki]

What's he have to offer in return, a smile, a bow?

 

Only if every child- rapist could just say im sorry and get off scott free the world would be such a better place. Oh wait it just happened centuries of rape all forgiven just because one man said sorry...... fuck these sociopath bastards fuck them all.

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[Josh F]

Decades?  Try centuries. 

[Daniel Unplugged]

"...shaken the moral authority of the leaders of the Catholic Church"

 

Herein lies (a significant part of) the problem. Even the author of that piece is helping to cover things up. If the author truly was bothered by the actions of the church, they would have said the following instead.

 

"....shown beyond any doubt that the leadership of the Catholic Church is evil beyond belief, and should never, ever, be looked to as a moral authority, by anyone."

 

Behind all great acts of evil, there is the shadow of the people who were complicit, ignorant, tolerant and supportive.

 

The fact that the Catholics of the world are still willing to fund the church, and are still willing to accept such evil people as their leaders, shows how truly lost their sense of morality and virtue is.

 

It is clear why Catholics must not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would cease to be Catholics. Much was planned ahead of time.

[Livemike]

"...shaken the moral authority of the leaders of the Catholic Church"

 

Herein lies (a significant part of) the problem. Even the author of that piece is helping to cover things up. If the author truly was bothered by the actions of the church, they would have said the following instead.

 

"....shown beyond any doubt that the leadership of the Catholic Church is evil beyond belief, and should never, ever, be looked to as a moral authority, by anyone."

 

Behind all great acts of evil, there is the shadow of the people who were complicit, ignorant, tolerant and supportive.

 

The fact that the Catholics of the world are still willing to fund the church, and are still willing to accept such evil people as their leaders, shows how truly lost their sense of morality and virtue is.

 

It is clear why Catholics must not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would cease to be Catholics. Much was planned ahead of time.

 

Damn right.  This pope only got in because the previous one didn't feel he could handle systematic corruption at the Vatican.  The guy they brought over to investigate financial corruption at the Vatican bank is Cardinal George Pell.  Pell comes from Australia, where he won't be missed, particularly by abuse support groups and victims.  Even the guy they get in to clean up one kind of corruption covered up another kind.  

 

"Child abuse litigation has cost the Catholic Church some $3 billion (1.7 billion pounds) in settlements in the United States alone, and shaken the moral authority of leaders of the world’s largest religious denomination."

No what has shaken the moral authority of leaders of the world's largest religious denomination is their actions.  People don't lose moral authority when they get sued, but when people think they should be.  If they could show that they responded to the accusations with sensitivity, justice and vigilance then their moral authority (fiction-based as it is) wouldn't have been damaged.

[Josh F]

I will add though, it is a very positive thing that the organization with some of the most intrenched history of child abuse is being forced to acknowledge and confront it by a dwindling population of Catholics.

[sagiquarius]

Hey there Popey-Pope!  Request denied.  You can start really apologizing by releasing the names of the child abusers.  Then You can apologize by disbanding the church and helping to free minds of this particular strain of the theist virus.  Oh, and don't forget about all that wealth the church has "accumulated" over the years.  Yup, gonna need to distribute that in ways that will help you apologize.

 

While you're at it, don't forget to look yourself in the mirror and marvel at the wretched human being you have become, because there is no coming back from protecting this sort of evil.

[tasmlab]

What Daniel said, essentially large scale incarceration of the offending priests and disproportionate financial restitution to the victims and it is still too little too late.

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