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| Pope Francis has acknowledged the work being done in some parts of the world to protect children, but admitted that the Church had "delayed" in applying the necessary sanctions (AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO) |
Vatican City (AFP) - With the Catholic Church rocked by a devastating US report into child sex abuse, Pope Francis has this week sharpened his criticism on the explosive issue -- but he remains under pressure to enact far-reaching changes.
The US
grand jury report accused more than 300 "predator" priests in the
state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children over seven decades,
sparking a fresh bout of soul-searching among senior Catholics across the
world.
"The
clock is ticking for all of us in Church leadership. Catholics have lost
patience with us and civil society has lost confidence in us," Cardinal
Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who has been advising the pope on the
issue, said in a statement last week.
The
archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, added: "It is not enough just to
say sorry. Structures that permit or facilitate abuse must be broken down and
broken down forever.
"Why
does this not happen? Why must such a simple affirmation have to be repeated so
often?" he said at a weekend mass in the Irish capital.
Martin, who
will welcome the pope this weekend on his visit to Ireland -- a country where
abuse scandals have dealt profound blows to the Church's credibility -- said he
believes the Vatican's commission is too small to be effective.
Amid
harrowing details of abuse, the US report directs this scathing comment to the
Church hierarchy: "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."
The report
once again puts the spotlight on Pope Francis, who has been criticised for not
acting quickly enough to clamp down on the sprawling cases of abuse as well as
for a reluctance to distance himself from certain cardinals suspected of
omerta.
"With
shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not
where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realising
the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no
care for the little ones," the pontiff said in his letter earlier this
week.
At the end
of May, the Argentinian pope wrote a letter to the people of Chile, where an
unfolding abuse scandal has sparked an impassioned debate.
This week
in an unprecedented letter he addressed all of the globe's 1.3 billion
Catholics about the "atrocities" of abuse.
'Excuses
aren't enough'
While
Francis acknowledged the work being done in some parts of the world to protect
children, he admitted that the Church had "delayed" in applying the
necessary sanctions.
The pope
"did not, however, offer any new specifics" on possible new
accountability measures, said American Vatican-watcher John Allen, noting that
Francis did not make a single mention of the word "bishop".
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Child abuse
scandals surrounding the Catholic Church (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)
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"Among
great swathes of public opinion, the idea is beginning to gain traction that
mea culpas, statements and meetings with victims are not enough any more,"
according to Marco Politi, an Italian Vatican expert.
"It is
now up to Francis to act as supreme legislator" by modifying the Church's
canon law, Politi wrote in the Fatto Quotidiano newspaper.
He added
that there were already "virtuous examples" in this area in the
United States, Britain and Germany.
Journalist
Emiliano Fittipaldi, who has carried out several investigations into the
workings of the Church, told AFP that Francis could go further.
"The
pope could force bishops' conferences to send recent reports of abuse to
judicial authorities," he said. "Excuses aren't enough any
more."
That is a
sentiment echoed by many abuse victims.
"We
don't want a trial within the Vatican!" said Francesco Zanardi, leader of
an Italian abuse survivors' association.
According
to Vatican-focused blog "Il Sismografo," the pope could soon publish
specific guidelines for bishops on how to handle abuse claims -- but the
Vatican has not confirmed this.
In 2016,
Francis instigated a change in canon law which meant bishops could be removed
if they were found to be "negligent" in the face of reports of
paedophilia.
However,
within Church law there is no wider requirement to report cases to the relevant
judicial authorities. In certain countries this is a legal obligation but in
others, bishops are loath to make it a rule.
Some
commentators are also urging the Church to use its response to the crisis to
undertake a reconsideration of its stance on celibacy.
In an
opinion article published this week in French newspaper Le Monde,
French-Canadian writer Nancy Huston appealed to the pontiff to abolish celibacy
for priests and recognise the importance of sexuality for human well-being.
But even
though Pope Francis said in 2014 that "celibacy is not a dogma", the
Vatican does not yet seem ready to take the step of ending the practice.
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