Pope Francis: Catholic sex abuse ‘like a sacrilegious cult’ that sacrifice boys and girls

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/07/pope-francis-catholic-sex-abuse-like-a-sacrilegious-cult-that-sacrifice-boys-and-girls/



Pope Francis: Catholic sex abuse ‘like a sacrilegious cult’ that sacrifice boys and girls
By Lizzy Davies, The Guardian
Monday, July 7, 2014 11:54 EDT

Leaders of the Roman Catholic church who failed to respond adequately to reports of child sex abuse by paedophile priests caused even greater suffering to their victims and will in future be held accountable, Pope Francis has said, in a clear rebuke to bishops who helped cover up the scandal and shield abusers.

In his strongest condemnation yet of the clerical abuse that shook the Catholic community around the world, Francis asked for forgiveness on behalf of the church not only for the perpetrators of abuse but those senior figures whose “sins of omission” he said had exacerbated the problem.

The sexual abuse of minors by priests and other men of the cloth was a “crime and grave sin” that required the church to “make reparation”, he said.

The pontiff delivered the powerful homily at a morning mass in the Vatican before a group of six abuse victims, including two from the UK. Sixteen months into his papacy, it was his first such encounter.

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Here's one Pope Francis will most likely miss:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Bernard_Law



~snip~

Sexual abuse scandal
Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston

Cardinal Law became the first high-level Church official to be accused of actively participating in the cover-up of child molestation.[5]
Resignation as Archbishop of Boston

Law submitted his resignation as Archbishop of Boston to the Vatican some years before he turned 75 and would be expected to resign; Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation on December 13, 2002. In 2003 Sean O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap. was named Archbishop of Boston.

In a statement Law said, "It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness."[6] He remains a bishop and cardinal, which is a separate appointment. As a cardinal, he participated in the 2005 papal conclave.

Move to Rome
Arms of Cardinal Law

In December 2002, Law left Boston. It is often alleged [7] that he left just hours before state troopers arrived with subpoenas seeking his grand jury testimony; however, he had previously given evidence before two grand juries and been fully investigated by the state attorney general and the five district attorneys in the counties in which the archdiocese operates[citation needed]. When the state attorney general issued his report entitled Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston (July 23, 2003) he severely criticized Law mentioning that "the Archdiocese has shown an institutional reluctance to adequately address the problem and, in fact, made choices that allowed the abuse to continue" but did not allege that Law had tried to evade investigation and he did state that Law had not broken any laws because the law requiring abuse to be reported was not expanded to include priests until 2002.[8]

In May 2004, John Paul II appointed Law to a post in Rome, putting him in charge of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, with the title of Archpriest.[9]

Law was a member of the Congregations for the Oriental Churches, the Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Evangelisation of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family. He held membership in all these congregations and of the council before resigning from the governance of the Archdiocese of Boston, and at that time was also a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.[10]

Law reached age 80 on November 4, 2011, and lost the right to participate in any papal conclave and on the same day he ceased to hold his various Curial memberships. He remained as archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore until November 21, 2011, when Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló was appointed as the new archpriest.