How gratifying that CRUX magazine is not letting the Barros case just die out from the media for obvious lack of interest, even by all those who were so militantly seeking to push Benedict XVI from office in 2009-2010 for all his supposed misdeeds in dealing with clerical sex-abuse issues! I hope CRUX pursues the story even on the Chilean end, since one of Mons. Barros's accusers claims he saw lecher-priest Fernando Karadima engaging in sexual play with Barros himself! The accuser, now 51, is a Chilean journalist.
Anti-abuse commission members
upset about Pope's appointment of Chilean bishop
will meet with Cardinal O’Malley
by Inés San Martín
April 10, 2015
ROME — Two survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy who now sit on a Vatican anti-abuse commission are traveling to Rome this weekend to meet with Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley to protest Pope Francis’s recent appointment of a Chilean bishop linked to a notorious sex abuser.
A commission member speaking on background because he’s not authorized to discuss the matter confirmed to Crux that the meeting between O’Malley and the two victims who sit on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — Marie Collins of Ireland and Peter Saunders of the United Kingdom — will happen on Sunday.
Collins and Saunders will be joined by two other members of the Vatican panel.
Saunders spoke on Friday about the upcoming meeting in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter.
“I’m hoping Francis will be there as well, because we’re going to meet [O’Malley] in the Domus Santa Marta about this Chilean bishop situation, which is really quite disturbing,” Saunders said.
The Chilean bishop is Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid, previously in charge of Chile’s military diocese, who was appointed in mid-January as the new bishop of the small Osorno diocese and installed March 21 amid violent protests.
Barros is one of four bishops mentored by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a long-time point of reference for [sex abuses by] Catholic clergy in the country. In 2011, the Vatican sentenced Karadima to a life of “penitence and prayer” after finding him guilty of pedophilia and abuse of his ecclesiastical position.
The victims of Karadima have accused Barros and three other bishops of covering up for Karadima while he sexually abused devoted followers during the 1980s and 1990s. None of those bishops was ever charged with a crime, either by the Vatican or Chilean law enforcement agencies.
Saunders, founder of the UK-based National Association for People Abused in Childhood, told NCR that Barros “should not be in charge of a diocese where he will be responsible for young people. It’s an outrage.”
Through Twitter, Collins also has been outspoken against the appointment of Barros to the diocese of Osorno, calling it “a disappointment.”
The commission is currently working in small groups, each providing different perspectives to issues related to the prevention and protection of minors and vulnerable adults.
Two other survivors will be a part of the Sunday lunch with O’Malley, called “to take advantage of the cardinal being in Europe to participate in the meetings of the council of nine cardinals who advise the pope,” according to the commission member who spoke to Crux.
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, released a statement saying they’re encouraged that four abuse victims will meet this weekend with O’Malley about what they called Pope Francis’ “irresponsible appointment of a corrupt Chilean bishop.”
However, the SNAP statement added that
“every single member of the pontiff’s commission should be shouting from the rooftops about this callous and hurtful appointment that will only discourage other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from exposing clergy who commit and conceal child sex crimes.”
Looking ahead to the commission’s next plenary meeting, working groups are focusing on several priorities:
- Pastoral care for survivors and their families
- Education on warning signs and proper responses to abuse allegations
- Guidelines for best practices
- Formation for the priesthood and religious life
- Ecclesial and civil norms governing allegations of abuse
- Accountability for those in positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of abuse
Any bets as to whether JMB/PF will budge on his decision about Barros? [who, in any case, has been consecrated Bishop of Osorno - assuming that the incomplete Mass of consecration was valid regardless). How will Cardinal O'Malley mollify his protesting commission members otherwise?
Apparently, O'Malley did mollify the protesting commission members by simply promising he would call the Pope's attention to their concerns. One would think the Pope already knows about these concerns - the commission members' alarm was certainly very much in the news, and their concerns they are no different from those expressed in the letters sent to the Pope by the diocesan faithful of Osorno, some of the diocesan priests and almost half the members of the Chilean Parliament - but the Pope brushed off these concerns effectively by saying he was 'confident' he acted right to appoint Barros.
O'Malley tells commission members
he will present their concerns over
the Barros appointment to the Pope
April 13, 2015
Four lay members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met with one of Pope Francis’ top cardinal advisers at the Vatican on Sunday to voice their concerns about the appointment of a Chilean bishop, accused of covering up for an abusive priest.
The four said in a written statement the same day that Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who is also the protection commission’s president, “agreed to present their concerns to the Holy Father” about the nomination of Bishop Juan Barros to the Diocese of Osorno, Chile.
The bishop had been accused of covering up for a priest who was known to have committed sexual abuse. Bishop Barros, however, denied having had knowledge of Father Fernando Karadima’s criminal behaviour, prior to news about the abuse in the press.
Commission member Marie Collins from Ireland expressed her satisfaction with their discussion at the Vatican, posting on her Twitter feed on April 13 that she was “heading home after a good meeting” with Cardinal O’Malley.
[Was the meeting 'good' because O'Malley promised to bring their concerns to the Pope, or did he manage to convince the protesters how and why the Pope came to his decision on Barros and is sticking to it?]
The three other members of the 17-person commission at the 30-minute meeting included Peter Saunders, Dr Catherine Bonnet and Baroness Sheila Hollins. Collins and Saunders are both survivors of clerical sex abuse.
“Although we are not charged with dealing with individual cases, the protection of minors is our primary concern,” the four members said in their statement. “The process of appointing bishops who are committed to and have an understanding of child protection is of paramount importance.”
Bishops, they said, must be able to “enact effective policies” on sex abuse and “carefully monitor compliance.”
[A bishop may well do (or intend) all of that, but what if he starts out with the multi-layered accusations about his personal conduct, as Barros does, in that he is said to have tolerated and/or covered up the sex abuses committed by his mentor, and worse, engaged in sexual dalliance himself with that mentor, who has been proven to be a real lecher?
1) Should the Pope not have applied the principle that "Even Caesar's wife must be above suspicion"? 2) Should not a formal investigation into the accusations against Barros have been launched? and 3) Pending such an investigation, could the Pope not have appointed someone else as Bishop of Osorno? Then, if and when Barros is cleared of these accusations, he can always be appointed bishop without any miasma of dishonour hovering around him!]
The commission members had scheduled their meeting with Cardinal O’Malley to coincide with his arrival in Rome for another weeklong session of the nine-member Council of Cardinals, set to start April 13.
The earlier story anticipating this meeting said that O'Malley was meeting the four Commission protesters at Casa Santa Marta. I am truly surprised that our beloved and most informal and spontaneous Pope did not drop in on the meeting and mollify the protesters himself! After all, if he managed to receive the Spanish trans-sexual Diego and his fiancee, don't his Abuse Commission members deserve the same privilege?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/04/2015 03:46]