‘Hand yourself over to human justice’: Pope Francis tells priests guilty of abuse that the church won’t shield them - The Washington Post

December 21 at 8:50 AM

Pope Francis used one of his major annual Christmas speeches to offer some of his strongest words yet on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church, telling guilty priests that the church won’t protect them and they should turn themselves in.

“To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,” Francis said in a speech at the Vatican on Friday.

He promised major steps to prevent abuse would emerge from a February summit of bishops — a renewed commitment for a pope who has been criticized as weak in his response to abuse.

Speaking to the Roman Curia — the central governing leadership of the Vatican — Francis described at length the sinfulness of priests who prey on children. “Often behind their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces, they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls,” he said, in remarks that drew often on the example of the sinful biblical King David. “Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes. The church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case.”

He acknowledged that the church has in the past “treated many cases without the seriousness and promptness that was due. That must never happen again. This is the choice and the decision of the whole church.”

Francis was speaking Friday morning to global leaders of a church that has seen abuse scandals break out on nearly every continent in recent years, from Australia to Chile to Ireland to the United States.

In the United States, two developments drew new attention to clergy abuse this summer: a major Pennsylvania grand jury report, which documented allegations of crimes by more than 300 priests and inspired similar criminal and civil investigations in more than a dozen states; and the removal of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a longtime leader in the church who was accused this summer of sexual misconduct toward minors and adults.

The U.S. bishops all convened in November for a meeting where they pledged to draft new policies for preventing abuse, but then they received a letter from the Vatican in the hours before the meeting began, telling them not to take any action. The bishops were stunned by the Vatican’s directive that they wait for a global meeting of bishops on the abuse crisis in February.

[Vatican tells U.S. bishops not to vote on proposals to tackle sexual abuse]

That February meeting, Francis promised in his Christmas speech, will make progress on the issue. He said the meeting will include experts on preventing child abuse. “An effort will be made to make past mistakes opportunities for eliminating this scourge,” he said.

Advocates for victims, who have long criticized Francis’s handling of the issue, were initially skeptical that his speech Friday represented a new vigor in rooting out abusive priests.

“While refusing to reveal the name of one cleric who committed or concealed child sex crimes, Francis gives yet another promise about ending cover ups,” David Clohessy, the former director of the victims' group SNAP, wrote in an email to reporters. “Just this week, in one US state alone, Illinois, we learned there are 500 accused priests whose identities are being protected by bishops. Across the globe, there must be tens of thousands of proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting clerics who are still being covered up. If he’s serious, Francis could show it by suspending all Illinois bishops until they ‘come clean’ or the attorney general’s investigation clears them of wrongdoing. The pope could end this reckless secrecy but just continues pontificating.”

[Illinois attorney general accuses Catholic church of lowballing scope of sexual abuse allegations]

Victims' groups like SNAP have pointed out Francis’s initial defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse; Francis later confessed to “grave errors” in his approach to that country’s abuse scandal. They were stunned in October by Francis’s letter to Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl — who stepped down early amid complaints about his handling of abusive priests while he was bishop in Pittsburgh, which was revealed in a Pennsylvania grand jury report. Francis told the retiring cardinal that he had “sufficient elements” to justify his actions, and praised his “nobility.”

[Pope Francis accepts Cardinal Wuerl's retirement, while offering him a soft landing]

In his remarks Friday, Francis pointed out that many defenders of the church have blamed journalists who cover clergy’s crimes, including accusing reporters of focusing unfairly on Catholic abusers and not on those in other denominations and professions. “I myself would like to give heartfelt thanks to those media professionals who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims’ voices heard,” he said.

Sexual abuse was only one topic Francis dealt with in his lengthy Christmas address. He has used this annual speech to the Roman Curia to take Vatican leaders to task before; in 2014, he used this same speech to list 15 “ailments” of church leaders, including one he termed “spiritual Alzheimer’s.”

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