Pressure is mounting on Pope Francis to resign after a grand jury report in Pennsylvania found that possibly more than 1,000 children in six dioceses had been sexually abused by about 300 priests or higher ranking officials.
On top of that, the report said that bishops and other top church officials had tried to contain the public outcry and liability by covering up the crimes, which Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro claimed “went all the way to the Vatican.”
But the report, and the Vatican’s subsequent tepid response, has exposed a split within the Holy See which threatens to bring down Pope Francis just five years after he replaced Pope Benedict XVI.
Several days after the news broke and dominated U.S. headlines, the Vatican released a statement.
Using uncharacteristically strong language for the Vatican, even on such serious issues as child abuse, the Holy See spokesman said to victims that “the pope is on their side.”
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the incidents of abuse graphically documented in the grand jury report were “betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith.”
“The church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur,” he said.
But for many Catholics and long-time Vatican observers, the acknowledgment of the criminal behavior was too little, too late.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group that describes itself as agnostics and atheists (including former Catholics) are running a full-page ad later this week in The New York Times urging people to leave the Church.
“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all,” the ad says. “Six dioceses, three hundred predatory priests, a staggering 1,000-plus victims.
“No bishops indicted. The pope’s response? All words, no action — except, insultingly, to call on the faithful to ‘pray and fast.”
The advert in the Times comes after Francis was taken to task on Sunday by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to the U.S.
According to AFP, the Pope had on Sunday begged forgiveness for child sexual abuse in the Catholic church — a day after a former Vatican official accused him of covering up allegations against an American cardinal.
Speaking at the Marian shrine in the Irish town of Knock, the pontiff said the “open wound” of the scandal required the church to be “firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice.”
“I beg forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God’s family,” he told the tens of thousands gathered at the shrine, according to the Guardian.
“None of us can fail to be moved by the stories of young people who suffered abuse, were robbed of their innocence and left scarred.”
His remarks had come after a former Vatican ambassador to the US accused Francis himself of covering up the alleged abuses of former Archbishop of Washington, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
In a lengthy letter published Saturday in the National Catholic Register, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano claimed he’d told Francis in 2013 about allegations that the then-cardinal had slept with young seminarians — but the pope nevertheless chose to lift sanctions imposed on McCarrick by his predecessor, Pope Benedict.
Vigano, whose letter also rails against homosexuals and liberals in the church, doesn’t provide any evidence of the sanctions existing in the first place.
McCarrick resigned last month after a US church probe found accusations that he’d sexually assaulted a minor were “credible.”
Neither Francis not the Vatican has commented on Vigano’s claims.
Francis held a mass in front of 500,000 Catholics in Dublin later Sunday — during his first visit to Ireland in 39 years — while abuse victims and their supporters rallied in the city center, AFP reports.
The paper also reported that Pope Francis in Ireland on Sunday “begged for God’s forgiveness” for the child sexual abuse scandal rocking the church, but faced accusations by a former Vatican official that he had personally ignored allegations against senior clergy.
During Sunday’s address to 45,000 supporters at the rain-soaked Knock shrine in the west of the country, the pope “begged for God’s forgiveness” for the “open wound” of the scandal and demanded “firm and decisive” measures to find “truth and justice”.
The scandal has dogged the visit, and intensified overnight when a former Vatican envoy to the US accused Francis of personally ignoring sexual abuse claims against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano wrote in a letter published in the National Catholic Register that he had told Francis of the allegations in 2013, but that he had responded by lifting sanctions imposed on McCarrick by predecessor Pope Benedict.
“He (Pope Francis) knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator,” wrote Vigano,” adding “he knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end.”
The Vatican said it had no comment to make on the claims.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Saturday had directly urged the pope to take action against abuses and ensure justice for victims worldwide.
Francis said inaction over “these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments”.
Francis on Saturday also met eight abuse victims, including a woman assaulted by a priest when she was in hospital aged 13 and a man who was illegally adopted because his mother was unmarried.
In a strongly-worded speech at the start of the pope’s visit, Varadkar said the abuses in Ireland were “stains” on the Catholic Church, the state and Irish society as a whole.
“There is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors. Holy Father, I ask that you use your office and influence to ensure that this is done here in Ireland and across the world,” he said.
He demanded of Francis “that from words flow actions”.
Paul Jude Redmond, who was illegally adopted from a Church-run ‘Mother and Baby Home’ and met the pope on Saturday, said the pontiff appeared “genuinely shocked” by the stories of abuse.
But at a news conference in Dublin on Saturday by the group Ending Clergy Abuse, victim Mark Vincent Healey said the pope’s speech in Dublin was a “total missed opportunity”.
“We’re still waiting. We’re left with uncertain silence. When is he going to act? What is he going to do?”
This is the first papal visit to Ireland since John Paul II spoke in front of 1.5 million people during a visit in 1979.
The Church’s role and standing has been badly dented by the abuse scandals and the Irish have shed traditional Catholic mores, voting earlier this year to legalise abortion after approving same-sex marriage in 2015.
The pontiff is in Ireland to close the 2018 World Meeting of Families — a global Catholic gathering that addressed issues, including the treatment of gay people, in the Church.
Street vendors in Dublin selling papal souvenirs complained of sluggish trade, as protesters rubbed shoulders with devout Catholics in the streets of the city.
In Tuam, a town in western Ireland not far from Knock, a silent vigil was planned for Sunday in solidarity with victims of ‘mother and baby’ homes — institutions accused of being punishment hostels for unwed pregnant women.
“Significant quantities” of baby remains found in makeshift graves at the site of one such home in Tuam last year shocked the country.
Multiple probes in Ireland have found Church leaders protected hundreds of predatory priests; and former Irish president Mary McAleese revealed this month that the Vatican had sought to keep Church documents inaccessible to government investigators.
The abuse scandals in Ireland are part of a worldwide crisis for the Vatican.
A devastating report earlier this month accused more than 300 priests in the US state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1950s.
AFP/Fox News/NAN/Punch
