Posted on 04/23/2002 7:11:21 AM PDT by history_matters
VATICAN CITY, April 23 — Pope John Paul II bluntly told American cardinals Tuesday that sex abuse by priests is “rightly considered a crime by society,” and that there is no place in religious life for abusers. The pontiff made his comments — his strongest yet since allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests began pouring in this year — during an extraordinary meeting between U.S. cardinals and Vatican officials.
THE POWERFUL and specific words by the pope could have a determining effect on whether the Catholic Church in the United States formulates policy to automatically hand over pedophile priests to civil authorities — what some have called a “one strike and you’re out” standard.
“The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God,” the pope told the closed-door meeting. “To the victims and their families wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern.”
“People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young,” the pope added, according to the official English text of the speech released by the Vatican.
The meeting opened a day after a report that a move was afoot by fellow cardinals to force the resignation of embattled Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, accused of mishandling sex abuse cases.
At a press conference held after the pope’s speech, a senior U.S. cardinal, Chicago’s Francis George, said the topic had not come up during meetings with Vatican officials. But George noted that Law told the group that “if he hadn’t made some terrible mistakes, we probably all wouldn’t be here.”
The pope, for his part, did not address the issue directly, but he did say “bishops and superiors are concerned above all else with the spiritual good of souls.”
“I ask Catholics to stay close to their priests and bishops and support them with their prayers at this difficult time,” he added.
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been rocked by waves of sex abuse scandals that have shaken the confidence of the faithful, led to the resignation of one bishop, and cost the church millions of dollars in legal settlements. Church officials have been accused of covering up misconduct by priests, in some cases by moving known abusers from job to job.
Bishop William Skylstad, who is attending the talks as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, told NBC’s “Today” show that there has been “very strong discussion” of a national standard for dealing with sexual abuse and that more details might emerge when the talks conclude on Wednesday. A final decision, however, would not be made until U.S. bishops and cardinals meet in June, he noted.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with the pope, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., insisted that Law should stay in his place and insisted that the agenda in the meetings boil down to one thing.
“We’ve got to make sure that people can trust their priests,” he said. “We are here to find out what we can do, in concert with the Holy See, to create an environment that is safe for children.”
ACTION ON LAW UNLIKELY NOW
The ultimate fate of Law, accused of knowingly transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them, seems highly unlikely to figure in the closed-door meeting that concludes Wednesday night, despite what is said in personal conversations.
No cardinal spoke publicly about Law’s possible resignation, but a Los Angeles Times report quickly spread around the Vatican.
The report Monday quoted a cardinal, who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity, as saying that several U.S. cardinals would push the Vatican to ask Law to resign.
McCarrick said he had not heard of an anti-Law push. “If some felt very strongly, they would speak to him privately. I can’t see a cabal.”
“The trouble began on his watch and he wants to fix it. Give him a chance,” McCarrick told reporters.
Upon his arrival in Rome on Monday, Law declined to answer questions about his trip to Rome earlier this month to discuss his possible resignation with the pope.
Law said he had made his position clear in a statement Sunday in Boston, in which he called the scandal a “wake-up call” for the Catholic Church that “must spark immediate and decisive changes.”
‘SEASON FOR ACTION’
Underscoring the urgency here, the head of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., told a media briefing that “we’ve passed the time for mea culpas. We’re in the season for action.”
The ongoing Law saga aside, differences could emerge among bishops — and with the Vatican — over whether homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood and whether to relax the Catholic rule that priests be celibate.
McCarrick agreed with the pope’s weekend remarks that were interpreted as taking celibacy off the agenda. “It’s a straw man to bring that up at this time,” he insisted.
Church officials have said the pedophile scandals have deeply affected the pope, who turns 82 next month. John Paul suffers from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and has recently been forced to reduce his participation in long ceremonies because of knee pain.
Boston became the epicenter of the controversy in January, when reports disclosed that Law and other church leaders had reassigned a priest accused of pedophilia.
The aftershocks of these revelations have since been felt in parishes throughout the country as additional reports of abuse have come to light.
Rosie O'Donell? About that apostate church...... LOL
Excellent post. What you said beared repeating....many times
They are! BTW, the Catholic Church is not the apostate Church. That may be wishful thinking for some.
You outta stick with politics!
This is how JP2 used to be.
I guess he either got old, or hoodwinked by the dudes around him.
Old makes sense.
But hoodwinked, no.
Anyone who can read eight languages or more, can sure as heck get a copy of the Wanderer every now and then.
But I keep thinking about the Bishop who married the moonie chick, and got cracked on by JP2 immediately.
This was not too long ago, either.
This struggle may be the old man's last, and I hope he goes out with a bang by really shaking up the liberals, pervs, and homos in the Church.
Insofar as FR is a good source of otherwise-suppressed news, the Wanderer is even more so.
Very well written, very true to the Church, VERY hated by most liberals in the Church.
I have never heard of a priest admit privately or publicly that he has ever read the Wanderer. Interesting.
I have never heard a news article or editorial EVER mentioned by a priest in a sermon, or privately.
That, in light of the current war in the Church, is truly amazing.
To me it says, the Wanderer is dead on target.
The priests avoid mentioning it like the plague.
I think during these trying times American conservatives of every religious stripe need to build bridges with each other and with conservatives in Europe to tell them loud and clear that we abhor the pedophelia rot in the Catholic church, and that we respect their right to hold onto the celibacy doctrine - we are not the ones questioning them. Even though American society is sex-drenched, we as conservatives are trying to search for a way forward to heal our society.
I think we even need to reach out to the Le Pen people in France and find out what they are all about, with a new pair of eyes.
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