Everybody has a crush on Pope Francis. He drives a car! He eats with the priests! He cold calls Catholics who write him letters!
But wait, there’s more!
He used to be a bouncer at a bar! He reportedly sneaks out at night to feed the poor! He speaks out against those nasty capitalists (whose donated money is the principal funding source for Vatican City, BTW).
Wow, with all of this action, he would have to take decisive action on the clergy abuse crisis, the first and foremost problem in his own nest, right? Eh, not so much.
Instead, he formed a committee! (Insert sad trombone here)
Not only that, but he refused to answer the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s questions about child sexual sexual abuse. Apparently, Francis only takes action when solving OTHER people’s problems.
C’mon Francis! You blew it. This was low-hanging fruit! You could have been on the fast track to sainthood. All you need to do are a few simple things:
You can start by the easy, symbolic actions. First, you strip Roger Mahony of any titles, power or significance. After that, you fire Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn (I mean, really, he’s CONVICTED of child endangerment). This is easy stuff. Send them both to the villages of Western Alaska, where they can live in abject poverty and devote the rest of their lives to the victims of Jesuit priests there.
Then, you move on to Bernard Law, that portly grey-haired guy who lives down the street from you. Can him. Strip him of all his titles and power. Then send him back to Boston and make him live in Southie. Make him wear a t-shirt that says, “Yes, I am Bernard Law. I promoted the guy who raped your cousin.” On laundry day, he can wear his “Born and Bred Yankee Fan” jersey. That should do it.
Those would be some good first steps.
Your committee? Lame. We all see right through it. You don’t care about making real change and you don’t care about victims because they are “inconvenient” to your agenda. If you truly cared about the world, you should start with the mess in your own basement. Now.
His own order THE JESUITS.. are some of the worst human rights abusers and child/adult rapists on the planet.. not to mention exploitation of indigenous and vulnerable adults.. one of their own (his own) Jesuit seminarians in California had to sue the California Jesuits for sexual harassment.. I think it was 7 Jesuits at los gatos tried to get him to have sex with them.. and then the poor kitchen workers in Los Gatos who were raped by Jesuits priests.. (pope Francis’s order.. and then the Jesuit transvestite who lured young boys into his car in northern California as he was dressed as a woman.. and was arrested.. curiously the Jesuit provincial Thomas Smolich who is now the head of the US Jesuits was this priests room mate…. it just goes on and on. Jesus said “see first that your own house is in order..” francis might want to clean up and disable the Jesuit order he represents.. they are filth.
We wonder if Pope Francis is having any trouble squeezing himself around the huge elephant in the room. He can’t be that blind, can he?
The sex abuse and cover up within the church hierarchy is still going on to this day. Cardinals and bishops are still not removing accused predator clergy, and they are still not reporting to law enforcement. Their so called “zero tolerance” policy is not being followed by the bishops who created it. They don’t have to, because there is no punishment to force the bishops to change their ways of protecting their image and the institution rather than protecting innocent kids. Until they spend time behind bars for their crimes of cover up, nothing will change and children will still be sexually abused within this archaic secret system. It is becoming more clear that Pope Francis can not be counted on to remove and fire these criminal bishops.
Does the pope care if his silence and in-actions keep hurting thousands of victims, and continues to put innocent children at risk of being sexually abused?
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
“SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
The clergy sex abuse crisis does not need another Committee, Commission, or whatever else anyone wants to call the Pope’s latest PR strategy. However, if Pope Francis is sincere about his new attempt to stop heinous crimes against children and the life long devastation that follows, then he needs to guarantee the following:
1. SURVIVOR REPRESENTATION on the Committee.
2. WHISTLEBLOWER REPRESENTATION on the Committee. At least one “Whistleblower” who has faced defamation, denied justice and blacklisted from future employment for honoring mandated reporting laws that have been ignored for decades by Catholic officials, employees and their corrupt attorneys.
If Pope Francis does not quickly act to assemble a LEGITIMATE Committee to deal with clergy sex abuse crimes that have continued for decades, then assuming Pope Francis’ attorneys are at it again would be fair. This is what created the clergy sex abuse crisis — corrupt attorneys who serve more than One Master, with intent to build their own financial and political portfolios versus advising their clients that mandated reporting laws include everyone employed by a religious and/or non-religious institution–NO EXCEPTIONS!
To Pope Francis…. in the interests of justice and the protections of God’s most precious gift to the world, fire your legal advisors and hold them accountable for destroying lives. It only took one legal advisor employed by the Pope, Vatican and U.S. Bishops to advise in accordance with the laws of any moral and decent society. I cannot help but fear this new Committee is another tactic to delay statutes of limitations that the public is unaware of—more twisted versions of laws by self-serving legal advisors.
Will someone please do the right thing–each year that passes, another heinous crime is covered up and precious children are at risk.