{"id":3135,"date":"2018-05-22T23:47:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T06:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2018-05-22T23:47:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T06:47:50","slug":"popes-handling-of-sex-abuse-case-shows-political-savvy-the-wall-street-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=3135","title":{"rendered":"“Pope\u2019s Handling of Sex-Abuse Case Shows Political Savvy”, The Wall Street Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Francis X. Rocca, Analysis, May 21, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

After drawing criticism for his approach, Pope Francis has assumed the role of reformer.<\/p>\n

VATICAN CITY\u2014Three months ago, Pope Francis was at the low point of his five-year pontificate in terms of public image and credibility. His top adviser on child protection<\/a>, Boston\u2019s Cardinal Sean O\u2019Malley, had publicly rebuked him for statements that the cardinal said \u201ccaused pain\u201d to victims of clerical sex abuse. Even some of the pope\u2019s strongest supporters voiced dismay or fell silent about his apparent lack of sensitivity.<\/p>\n

Now, following Friday\u2019s extraordinary news that all the bishops of Chile<\/a> have collectively offered their resignations to the pope, citing their failings in dealing with sex abuse, the pope has assumed the role of reformer on the most scandalous issue besetting the contemporary Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Cruz, a prominent Chilean sex-abuse victim-turned-activist who in February accused the pope of lying, praised him in a tweet on Friday for giving \u201cnew hope to survivors of abuse worldwide!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The pope has displayed political acumen and a capacity for bold action in his handling of the situation. But he has yet to explain publicly his statements and actions that set off the controversy, nor has he made clear what if anything has changed in his approach to sex abuse.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis\u2019 decision in 2015 to appoint Bishop Juan Barros to a diocese in Chile<\/a> drew protests because of charges that the bishop had witnessed and failed to report sex abuse by another priest decades earlier. Bishop Barros has denied the accusations.<\/p>\n

The pope was caught on video that year dismissing the protesters as \u201cfoolish\u201d and urging them not to be \u201cled by the nose by leftists.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a Latin America trip<\/a> in January, the pope turned the Barros case into a major global story, telling reporters that the sex abuse victims accusing the bishop were guilty of slander. He also said that he hadn\u2019t heard from any of Bishop Barros\u2019 accusers, but evidence later emerged that he received a detailed letter from one in 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The pope\u2019s statements in January reinforced a growing perception that he was tone deaf or worse when it came to sex abuse\u2014a feature that clashed with his widespread image as a compassionate defender of the weak.<\/p>\n

Amid the uproar the week after his return from Chile, the pope made a rare reversal of a prominent public stand. Despite having said that he was convinced of Bishop Barros\u2019 innocence, he appointed a special investigator<\/a> to examine possible new evidence in the case.<\/p>\n

Two months later, after receiving a 2,300-page report based on interviews with 64 people, the pope wrote to the Chilean bishops saying that he had been guilty of unspecified \u201cgrave mistakes\u201d<\/a> owing to a \u201clack of truthful and balanced information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pope has now apologized to the Chilean victims<\/a> whom he accused of slander, and he has told the Chilean bishops that he was part of the problem. But he hasn\u2019t publicly said where his own responsibility lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know no more than what the pope himself has said about being misled. We don\u2019t know who misled him. We don\u2019t know what he was told,\u201d said Marie Collins, a victim and former papal adviser on sex abuse, who resigned last year in protest at Vatican inaction. \u201cHaving so publicly spoken in such a critical and abusive manner about these survivors, really people in the church are entitled to know why he would behave in such a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such questions have now been overshadowed by the Chilean bishops\u2019 collective apology for what they called the \u201creprehensible facts\u201d of negligence and coverup in the Vatican report, and especially by the bishops\u2019 unprecedented offer to resign en masse.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis \u201chas played it very well in the sense that no one asks about the pope\u2019s responsibility,\u201d \u201csaid Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America. \u201cThe focus has now shifted from that trip, and the way [the pope] dealt with the victims, to the bishops and whatever their responsibility is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Martens said Pope Francis\u2019 handling of the episode made it clear to the world\u2019s bishops in general that, despite his frequent talk of decentralization and consultation, \u201cwhen it really matters, he shows his power.\u201d<\/p>\n

That outcome is a positive one for the church in Chile, Ms. Collins said, but a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d for the Vatican and the world-wide Catholic Church to find a permanent and universal solution to the covering up of sex abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole issue should be dealt with in a much more sound, transparent and structured way,\u201d which would subject offending bishops to formal disciplinary procedures rather than allowing them to resign, she said. The pope \u201chasn\u2019t come out and said clearly the means by which he is going to prevent this happening in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Francis X. Rocca, Analysis, May 21, 2018 After drawing criticism for his approach, Pope Francis has assumed the role of reformer. VATICAN CITY\u2014Three months ago, Pope Francis was at the low point of his five-year pontificate in terms of public image and credibility. His top adviser on child protection, Boston\u2019s Cardinal Sean O\u2019Malley, had publicly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3136,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}