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| Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick after the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. Seton Hall University has begun an investigation into potential sexual abuse at two seminaries it hosts following [sexual] misconduct allegations against ex-Cardinal McCarrick and other priests (Jonathan Newton/Washington Post via AP) |
Catholic board seeks parishioner-led abuse investigation
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| Hooray! Pope Francis is a hypocrite liar! |
A committee created by the
Catholic Church specifically to prevent sexual misconduct by clergy on
Tuesday issued a damning assessment of the failings to stem the abuse,
calling it an "evil" caused by "a loss of moral leadership."
The National Review Board called for an
investigation led by parishioners, saying a new wave of abuse scandals
point to a "systematic problem" and that the bishops themselves can't be
trusted to lead an investigation.
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| This Roman rewrite says I can't be wrong. |
Some survivors of clergy sex abuse said the call
was a disingenuous attempt by the church to get around a true
independent investigation.
The board was formed in 2002 in the wake of
the clergy sex abuse scandal that started in the Boston Archdiocese and
rocked the church globally.
The committee said it was compelled to seek a
lay-led investigation after recent revelations from a grand jury
investigation into six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania and allegations
that led to the resignation last month of ex-Cardinal Theodore
McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C.
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| Bishops help each other. Pope is a bishop. |
The grand jury report estimated 300 Roman Catholic
priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly
many more — since the 1940s, and accused senior church officials,
including McCarrick, of systematically covering up complaints. McCarrick
formerly served the church in Pennsylvania.
"Intimidation,
fear, and the misuse of authority created an environment that was taken
advantage of by clerics, including bishops, causing harm to minors,
seminarians, and those most vulnerable," the board said in its
statement. "The culture of silence enabled the abuse to go on virtually
unchecked."
Dennis M. Doyle, a professor of religious studies
at the University of Dayton in Ohio and a Catholic theologian, said the
National Review Board's call would be a notable shift in the church's
history of a hierarchical authority.
The call for a lay-led investigation, he said, "is
an acknowledgement that the people in power can't be in charge of
investigating themselves." It also seems to take a page from a
three-page letter issued a week ago by Pope Francis, who blamed the
church's top-down culture for allowing the abuse to take place in a
shroud of secrecy.
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