Michael Kelly
There is growing disquiet within the Church about Pope Francis’ handling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse. Shortly after his appointment, Francis won widespread praise for setting up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It was a bold statement of intent that the Argentine Pontiff was intent on ensuring that the global Church had robust procedures for the safeguarding of minors.
Now, the Pope has allowed that body to go into abeyance and has not yet indicated what he intends to do in the future.
At the same time, Francis sailed into choppy waters recently when he accused people who have made allegations of abuse against a Chilean cleric of “calumny”. The Pope did apologise for the hurt and offence that this remark caused and quickly had to send one of the Church’s top specialists on abuse to Chile Archbishop Charles Scicluna to investigate.
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It was not a good news story for a Church that has often attracted negative headlines for tardiness when it comes to responding to and handling allegations of abuse against clerics.
Now, it has emerged that the Pope had received a letter detailing abuse allegations despite his claim that he had no knowledge of the allegations (see page 25). To give Francis the benefit of the doubt, it’s possible that he had forgotten about the letter or passed it on to Vatican officials for investigation. It’s hard as Pope to keep on top of everything, but he urgently needs to grasp the nettle on this issue to end the perception that he has a blind spot on the issue of abuse.
The Church in Ireland and many other countries is now acknowledged to have extremely robust safeguarding procedures. It has been a hard battle, but the Church has slowly reclaimed some moral authority on the issue due to vigilance and rigorous implementation.
But, Francis needs to be careful. All that could change in a heartbeat – and, so far, the Pope appears unperturbed.
No one who takes these things seriously can be in any doubt that the Catholic Church has learnt painful lessons from the mishandling of past abuse claims. Across Ireland, there is a veritable army of volunteers in parishes and Catholics groups ensuring that stringent child protection policies are implemented and followed to the letter.
If the Church has learnt anything from the child abuse crisis it must be that it cannot go it alone. Chaotic attempts to minimise the harm done to children and the impact on the wider community in the past have not only compounded the abuse but has done immense damage to the Church’s ability to carry out its mission.
Any weakening of resolve on this vital issue would be a betrayal of those who have suffered and a kick in the teeth to good Catholics working for authentic renewal in their Church. The Pope must urgently show leadership and re-establish the commission and stop resisting those who say they have been abused by priests and religious.