ZCZC
BFF-13
US-RELIGION-CATHOLIC-CHILDREN-VATICAN
Pope says on side of victims of US ‘predator’ priests
VATICAN CITY, Aug 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Pope Francis is on the side of
victims of more than 300 “predator” priests in the United States who are
accused of abusing over 1,000 children across seven decades, the Vatican said
Thursday.
“Victims should know that the pope is on their side,” the Vatican said in a
statement after a devastating US grand jury report published on Tuesday
decried a systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church.
“Those who have suffered are his priority, and the Church wants to listen
to them to root out this tragic horror that destroys the lives of the
innocent,” the statement said.
“There are two words that can express the feelings faced with these
horrible crimes: shame and sorrow,” it said.
The Vatican statement added that the church needed to learn “hard lessons
from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those
who permitted abuse to occur”.
The report is thought to be the most comprehensive to date into abuse in
the US church, since The Boston Globe first exposed paedophile priests in
Massachusetts in 2002.
But while Tuesday’s report led to charges against two priests, one of whom
has pleaded guilty, the majority of those responsible are dead and the vast
majority of crimes happened too long ago to prosecute, officials said.
The two-year investigation by a grand jury into all but two Pennsylvania
dioceses turned up dozens of witnesses and half a million pages of church
records containing “credible allegations against over three hundred predator
priests.”
More than 1,000 child victims were identifiable, but the “real number” was
“in the thousands,” the grand jury estimated.
– Hidden for decades –
Victims were often traumatised for life, driven to drugs, alcohol and
suicide, the grand jury said. The only recourse was to recommend changes to
the law and expose what had happened to make sure such widespread abuse was
never repeated.
So far only two new priests are being charged with crimes that fall within
the statute of limitations.
The grand jury called for changes in the law that would scrap the statute
of limitations for child sex abuse, give victims more time to file civil
lawsuits and tighten legislation compelling people to report abuse they find
out about.
“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have
largely escaped public accountability,” the report said.
“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. For decades.”
Church elders were instead promoted and predator priests allowed to remain
in ministries for 10, 20, even 40 years after leaders learned of their crimes
as the list of victims got longer and longer, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General
Josh Shapiro said.
Between 5,700 and 10,000 Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse
in the United States, but only a few hundred have been tried, convicted, and
sentenced for their crimes, according to the watchdog Bishop Accountability.
Since the abuse crisis became public in the 2000s, the US church has spent
more than $3 billion in settlements, according to Bishop Accountability.
One estimate suggests up there were 100,000 US victims.
– ‘Zero tolerance’ –
Francis was elected in 2013 and vowed to take a “zero tolerance” approach
to clerical sex abuse and rid the Church of the scourge of paedophilia, which
has done enormous damage to its standing in many countries.
But his credibility on the issue has been hit by a series of missteps and
victims’ organisations maintain that the Church remains reluctant to hand
paedophile priests over to criminal justice authorities.
Francis has compared sex abuse by priests to participating in a “Satanic
Mass”, but he has also been accused of being too soft on paedophiles,
extending to them a general policy of mercy he is promoting in the Roman
Catholic Church.
There are widespread accusations that the Catholic Church ignored and
covered up child abuse in countries from Australia to Chile.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0857 hrs