Pope Benedict meets with victims of clerical sexual abuse
Print Friendly VersionBy JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Washington, D.C.
In an unexpected and essentially unprecedented move, Pope Benedict XVI met quietly with five victims of clerical sexual abuse this afternoon at the Vatican’s embassy to the United States, located in Washington, D.C.
Listen to an interview with NCR senior corresponsent, John L. Allen, Jr.
Prior to this afternoon, no pope had ever met with victims of sexual abuse by priests. That omission has been oft-cited by critics of the church’s response to the crisis as an indication that Rome and the papacy are out of touch with American realities, or in denial about the magnitude of the problem.
All five victims who met with Pope Benedict today are from the Boston area, and sources told NCR that Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston played a role in arranging their encounter with Pope Benedict. In the end, however, those sources say, it was the pope’s choice to take the meeting.
At least some of the victims plan to make a public statement later this afternoon.
The Vatican has issued a statement saying that the meeting took place, and one of the victims who took part, confirmed the meeting for NCR shortly after it concluded.
Benedict is today is wrapping up the first leg of his six-day visit to the United States. He has repeatedly engaged the sexual abuse crisis during this trip, speaking about it for the first time before he even arrived.
“We are deeply ashamed, and we will do all that is possible that this cannot happen in the future,” the pope said in a session with reporters aboard the papal plane Tuesday en route to the United States.
Benedict argued that efforts to address the crisis have to unfold on three levels: the legal and juridical, the pastoral, and programs of prevention to ensure that future priests are “sound.” Pointedly, the pope said that “it’s more important to have good priests than to have many.”
In his address to the American bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday evening, he returned to the theme. The pope devoted five full paragraphs to sexual abuse of children, referring to it as “evil” and a “sin.”
In perhaps the most dramatic phrase, the pope conceded, quoting Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. bishops, that the crisis was “sometimes very badly handled.”
The pope pledged the church to pursue healing and reconciliation with those “so seriously wronged.”
Again during his Mass Thursday morning at Washington’s Nationals Park, the pope offered strong language about the crisis.
“I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors,” the pope said. “No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.”
The pope went on to ask all American Catholics to “do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt.”
In tandem with his meeting this afternoon, these references suggest a broad desire on the part of the pope to signal to American Catholics that he “gets it” -- meaning that he grasps the depth and gravity of the crisis.
Observers often point out that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was responsible for overseeing the church’s internal judicial process resulting from accusations of sexual abuse against a minor. In that role, the future pope read virtually all of the case files, arguably giving a more detailed “on paper” understanding of the crisis than most American bishops.
By most accounts, Benedict was deeply affected by that experience.
Whether today’s meeting, or Benedict’s repeated public references to the crisis, will ultimately satisfy victims remains to be seen. In an April 17 interview with CNN, David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that the pope’s rhetoric would ring hollow until it was backed by action.
Specifically, Clohessy called for Benedict to extend the “zero tolerance” policy of the American bishops to the universal church, and for at least a couple of American bishops associated with the crisis to be fired.
Clohessy spoke before news of the pope’s meeting with the five Boston-area victims became public.
Despite the endurance of such question marks, the pope’s forceful language, coupled with today’s meeting, is likely to at least diminish impressions that the pope is “out of touch” with the American situation.
Expectations created by the pope’s language, some observers say, could also make it more difficult for church officials to resist pressure for transparency, including the full disclosure of relevant documents related to allegations of sexual abuse, in the future.
Editor’s Note: Listen to John Allen discuss this event with Tom Fox this evening in a podcast that will be posted to NCRonline.org.
I must admit it was a
I must admit it was a surprise to hear Benedict bring up the Sexual Abuse problem as many times as he did while he was in the US and to visit with a few of the victims. It was tiny step in the right direction.
However I am afraid that nothing is going to change until something is done to discipline the bishops who covered so many of the problems. That is where the sore spot lies.
And as important...the Church is never really "going to get it" until it addresses the real problem...and that is the predominantly homosexual clergy. They continue to bring this issue up as a pedophile problem. Sadly, the problem is much larger and much more complex than they are ready to admit. It's much more than a priest/child problem.
You're right about a number
You're right about a number things. The sore spot is the fact bishops have not been held accountable, but the underlying rot in that sore is that they were following the CDF's lead in how to deal with the crisis. Cardinal Law wasn't demoted, he was allowed to resign his position. Resignation is the only option Rome can allow, because to actually discipline a bishop would mean disciplining them for Rome's orders.
The real problem is not homosexual clergy. The real problem is the ordination of sexually immature males. Another real, but statistiacally under reported problem, is the number of girls and women who have not come forward. I suspect those numbers are huge, but sexually using women isn't as repulsive to society as sexually abusing men, and women are more likely to buy into the 'it's your fault' defense than boys, and the parents of boys.
The heterosexual clergy abuse issue is a huge problem in the southern hemisphere, one we hear little about in America and so our vision about the totality of the abuse issue is skewed. I suspect Benedict's vision is not so skewed. It is perfectly understandable to me why he places the emphasis on healing for the victims, and the perversion of pedophile priests. If he focuses elsewhere he's dealing with systemic issues within the clerical system, and he doesn't seem to have the desire or the stomach to digest those issues.
colkoch.blogtoolkit.com
I am very pleasantly
I am very pleasantly surprised. I posted on this website not so long ago that Benedict should meet with abuse victims if he was serious about healing the wounds of the church in this country, and that if he didn't it would be clear signal that it is "business as usual." After Cardinal George said that time and security would not allow such a meeting I wasn't expecting one. (The not so subtle implication that abuse victims aren't important and that they are a physical threat to the pope is a characterization worthy of Bernard Law himself.) I am also glad that at least one of the victims was female. Female victims are the most forgotten of all since church leaders have tried to paint this as a homosexual problem.
Yes, the use of the passive voice IS business as usual, but we all know by now that the Vatican leaders are slow learners on this issue. All institutions--whether theocratic, economic, or governmental in nature--use the passive voice when addressing their own mistakes. I'm just glad Benedict XVI did this much.
Steve
Benedict's is gaining more
Benedict's is gaining more superdelegates than either democrat at this time. I would have never believed someone three years ago if they told me that I would be a fan of Benedict XVI. The true priest in him is coming out and he is beginning to get comfortable in his new role. He is growing in to the shoes of the fisherman.
As far as meeting with the abuse victims, I think it was authentic and appropriate. I believe it was sacramental in the truest form. It brought physical healing through word and symbol.
It certainly is not the be all and end all, source and summit of healing of the crisis and events. However, it is a start, and may I add, not one intended for the media but for the church.
I am also becoming somewhat ambivalent about the organization S.N.A.P. The spokepersons seem to always have a negative thing to say and never see any good with anyone or anything assoiciated with the hierarchy of the church. They have become unbalanced. Bitterness, anger, and resentments are the seeds sown in the garden of evil. I just want to hear one of them say, "WOW, look what happened! Let's enjoy this moment." Even if you write an evil blog next month about it all, Enjoy the Moment!
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Love that Sean! What a man, what a priest, what a cardinal-bishop, and God willing - future pope! This meeting has his fingerprints all over it. Faced with curial doubts and opposition, he pulled it off and it paid out. The man is the best thing that happened to Boston since the Red Sox.
I hope at least one of the
I hope at least one of the abuse victims who met with the Pope confronted him on how he has allowed Cardinal Bernard Law to live comfortably under the protection of the Vatican.
Benedict also missed a great opportunity when he met with the American bishops. He could have singled out their guilt in the abuse cover-up and then emulated Donald Trump by saying to each one of them: You're fired!
I think that this will be
I think that this will be remembered as one of the key points of the trip. However, I have to agree with a commentor who said that anything the Pope or the Church does towards healing and prevention of this scandal, will not be seen as sufficient by the some segments of the survivor community, the pain goes too deep, the wounds too great. Some will never trust the Church again. Still, I have to give Pope Benedict credit for this, we will probably never know what resistance he might have faced from the Curia over his words and actions on this.
In the long run, this will
In the long run, this will be the only thing remembered. We saw a chastened papacy and it was a true relief.
"They grind exceedingly
"They grind exceedingly slow."
This afternoon, I heard on CNN that the pope met some victims of clergy abuse and that NCR's correspondent, John Allen, broke the story. How fitting.
I remember 23 years ago when NCR published the clergy abuse series. Reactions ranged from "How dare you?", "It's all lies from that liberal paper" to "Keep quiet; we've taken care of it." Then followed deafening silence.
I would like to be generous to the pope for finally comprehending the extent of the damage to the U.S. church. And it's true that, by 1985, vocations to the priesthood were diminishing for various reasons, but I think the current dire situation might have been minimized had the pope directed the hierarchy to clean house firmly and publicly. Instead, too many stood back as their lawyers arranged quiet million dollar settlements.
The result: a generation of mothers no longer may have been willing to send their sons. Daughters certainly are unwelcome to the priesthood. The popes seemed to have forgotten that priests come from families.
NB: I am a member of the NCR family, having worked 11 years in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily for the paper.
Pam Bauer
I see a lot of use of
I see a lot of use of passive voice, which any English teacher will tell you is weak. Except for the oblique comment about being "badly handled", the bishops - the real villains in this - are not blamed or reproved. Nor does he acknowledge the Vatican's complicity in allowing pedophiles to be silently shipped around the country to continue their reign of terror.
John Allen says: "Prior to
John Allen says: "Prior to this afternoon, no pope had ever met with victims of sexual abuse by priests."
I have to believe that because of our 2000 year history of clergy abuse, most popes have "met" with victims. Maybe the victim didn't present himself or herself as a victim, but odds are that victims have certainly worked in the Vatican.
And of course, it is also quite possible that at the very least a few of the popes "met" with his own victim. Yes, you get the point....I'm saying that it is quite possible that at least some of the popes didn't only cover up for abuse, they were abusers themselves.
Only when we recognize the real truth of its history of abuse will we begin to create a healthy church.
I was pleasantly surprised
I was pleasantly surprised that Pope Benedict met with sexual abuse victims from the Boston area. I did not expect that. I would be amazed if he followed that up by firing a few bishops.
At least his appointments of bishops will tell us how serious he is about having good pastoral leadership in the church and not just yes men.