Posted on 09/17/2017 12:46:23 PM PDT by Jyotishi
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Vatican has a 2,000-case backlog in processing clerical sex abuse cases and says criticism of the slow pace was justified. But he says more staff are being added and insists the Vatican is "on the right path."
Francis was making his first comments about the criticism leveled at the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases by Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from Francis' sex abuse advisory commission in March. Collins quit because of what she said was the "unacceptable" level of resistance within the Vatican to implementing the group's proposals to better care for victims and protect children from priests who rape and molest them.
READ MORE: Pope's sex abuse advisory board to go on without abuse survivor member
Speaking to reporters while flying home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis called Collins "a great woman" and said she was "a bit right" to complain about the slow pace in processing cases.
"Marie Collins was right on that point. But we are on the right path, as there were 2,000 cases backlogged," he said.
Francis didn't respond to the other issues raised by Collins, including the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- which handles abuse cases -- to create a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests. Instead, he focused on explaining why cases can take so long to process.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalnews.ca ...
i recognize that not all charges are valid
and that care must be taken to get to the honest truth
of each case
but it sure would be NICE if the RCC could manage, somehow, to (sorry for this phraseology) put this baby to bed...ASAP
having 2000 charges lingering against its priests...for years and years.... does the Church no good at all
and justice delayed is justice denied, for that matter, too
And probably half of them are false accusations.
He was a former Marine, and when he got a few reports that a younger priest (who we all suspected was queer) had some questionable approaches or comments to some young men, after investigating, he approached the priest privately and told him: “If I hear one more report like this, I will come after you and personally beat the sh** out of you.”
The priest in question later left the priesthood and indeed came out as as a homosexual. Also, there have been no public complaints or lawsuits against any of the schools in the diocese - for many years, especially in the worst years of these revelations against the Church.
Handled properly? Handled too roughly?
I think (personally) this was handled just fine.
In our own diocese, growing up, we had a priest who was very affectionate with us kids and we looked forward to his visits in our Saturday CCD class. I never knew of any bad behavior on his part. I inquired about his whereabouts years later, and was told (soberly) by the person I asked that "he retired."
There were a couple of boys, maybe even three of them, in my CCD class, who were later said to have taken their own lives. They were pretty young when they did this. One was still in his teens.
I still wonder about that priest. Maybe he wasn't involved in their deaths. Maybe it was someone else.
Still, I wonder about all that.
Then I would certainly feel better only 1,000 cases after three decades of not fixing the problem..
That’s where I really fault the church.
I also fault it for merely transferring priests without telling the new location what he was involved in.
Thus these people got to start off all over again, doing the same things until caught years later. Meanwhile, more kids’ and families lives are destroyed.
Following up on my #23, I think the priest I was thinking of had been "transferred" (they didn't say where to) rather than "retired."
The negative impacts are terrible. No doubt about it.
I can’t imagine a kid in those situations and not thinking what was happening to them wasn’t something very wrong/terrible.
The personal behavior of the founder of Islam destroys his own standing with that 9 year old wife of his.
Good grief.
Doesn’t look good. That’s all I can say.
Christ built his church on the rock that was Peter. Both must be very ashamed.
Not so fast.
I know of a priest that is in jail. I know nothing about the accusations or his trial.
How much of this story is true? It SEEMS likely given this pope. Though it’s from the AP news.
All I can say is: may justice be done. May the facts be revealed.
There was another church (same diocese) where the priest made mention of a priest who had taken his own life over allegations of sexual abuse. I don’t remember the name of the accused priest and don’t know what really happened there.
Nobody is required to become a priest. Those who do are given an ample opportunity to reflect on what they're potentially giving up.
Do you blame sexual abuse among teachers (where it is a much bigger problem) on celibacy, too?
Peter took his “believing wife” along with him on his gospel travels. Payl, otoh, was celibate,so there are Biblical examples of both states.
Tell me why we shouldn't shut the Vatican down for 100 years and move the center of the Church to Poland. The Poles would not put up with any of this crap...
Payl = Paul
Calling them pedophiles actually creates cover for what has been happening. It's typical predatory homosexual behavior to go after naive, post-pubescent boys. They're not interested in sexually immature boys. Call it what it is, unfettered typical "chickenhawk" predation by homosexuals who had no fear of being held to account for their behavior.
The average age was between 8 and 10 yos. They were homosexual pedophiles.
That does not jibe with what I’ve read and understood for many years. Source, please.
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