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 Pope begs for abuse scandal forgiveness 6/11/2010 - 5:00:23 PM  Surrounded by 15,000 white-robed priests the pope begged forgiveness from clerical abuse victims today and promised to “do everything possible” to protect the world’s children. While symbolic, the pledge at a mass in St. Peter’s Square failed to satisfy victims groups, which said promises were useless without a clear-cut action plan to root out paedophile priests, expose the bishops who protected them and change the Vatican policies and culture that allowed the abuse to continue for decades. His comments came in a homily during a mass marking the Vatican’s Year of the Priest – a year marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, cover-ups by bishops and evidence of long-standing Vatican inaction. He implied that the devil was behind the timing of the scandal, saying the Year of the Priest was supposed to have been a year in celebration of the priesthood and encouragement for new vocations. “It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the ’enemy’ – he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven from the world,” he said to applause from the priests. “And so it happened that in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of little ones,” he said. “We also beg forgiveness, insistently, from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again.” He promised that the church would “will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of (priests’) vocations and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations.” His comments were similar to those reported by the Vatican during his private meeting with abuse victims in Malta in April, during which the pontiff had tears in his eyes as he heard the stories of men molested by priests as children. The pope also made similar comments last month en route to Portugal, in which he acknowledged that the “sins from within the church” were responsible for the scandal, not the media or some outside anti-Catholic lobby. And the pope begged forgiveness from victims in his March letter to the Irish faithful that condemned the abuses in that nation. Today’s homily, however, wrapped up those points in a single message directed at priests who came to Rome from around the world to support the pontiff and the priesthood itself amid the scandal. Vatican officials and priests in the square said they had never seen such a large gathering of clergymen, who all donned white vestments to concelebrate the mass from their seats in the piazza and renew their ordination vows. Victims groups who had been hoping for a papal mea cupla and clear-cut action plan to protect children were not satisfied. “A promise is nominally more helpful than an apology. But promises are usually easy to make, hard to keep and broken often if there’s no oversight or penalties,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the US victims group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Another group, BishopAccountability.org, said the pontiff’s remarks were both a disappointment and a squandered opportunity in that he only prescribed an internal step: better screening for priests. It called for the pope to tell his bishops to do more – to stop opposing legislation to extend statutes of limitations so victims can seek justice from abusers, to post information about known abusers in the clergy on diocesan websites and at the Vatican office that handles abuse cases. “Once again, the pope focused only on wayward priests, and he once again minimised the sodomising and abuse of helpless children by calling it a ’sin,”’ the group said. “He said nothing about the core problem: the Vatican’s policies and corrupt culture that encouraged bishops worldwide to cover up thousands of child sex crimes.” The pope’s own legacy has been tarnished by the scandal. He was archbishop of Munich in the 1980s when he approved therapy for a suspected pedophile who was allowed to resume pastoral duties while being treated. The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, was later given a suspended sentence for molesting a boy. In addition, the pope’s legacy at the Vatican office that dealt with sex abuse has come under scrutiny. |
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