Under Benedict XVI, the Church
is resolutely fighting abuse of minors -
but what is the rest of the world doing?
Editorial
by Salvatore Mazza
Translated from
February 6, 2013
It's difficult to even try to imagine a more horrific act than sexual abuse of a minor. Even more horrendous is when such a crime is committed by a priest - a minister of God who, by nature and vocation, must have a protective and caring attitude towards the smallest and most helpless among us.
This is an idea that Benedict XVI has expressed in every way on every occasion possible, not just in words but with decisive and precise actions.
And he has been doing so, not out of media pressure because of the scandals that have rocked the Church in the United States and Ireland, Germany and Belgium, but even, more importantly,
before and after these 'scandals' blew up.
Anticipating public opinion, and in fact, catching the world by surprise - as in the case of Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, whom he banned in 2006 from practising his ministry in public - and urging everyone 'not to let their guard down' even after, with the TV cameras gone, no one seems worked up about the problem. at least for now.
The presentation yesterday of the book containing the acts of the first Internatioonal Symposium on child abuse held at the Pontifical Gregorian University one year ago, and the activities carried out in its first year by the Center for the Protectionof Minors that resulted from it, are part of the 'after' phase, during which, silently but tenaciously, with respect to this problem, Papa Ratzinger has been 'remodelling' the Church with absolutely rigorous criteria starting with the formation of men aspiring to be priests to concrete actions taken about both the victims and the offenders, after the crimes are done.
These criteria have been described as 'tolerance zero', but in fact they are much more than that, since they combine at once the inseparable duty of justice and the commandment of love. Always placing the needs of the victim in first place, the duty to cooperate with civilian authorities, and laying down the bases for preventing what has happened so often in the past, when a misguided desire to protect the Church as an institution, led to errors, under-estimation of the problem and outright anomalies in the handling of priest offenders and their crimes.
On the basis of general criteria laid down by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, all the national bishops' conferences in the world, have been asked to prepare country-specific guidelines for dealing with sex abuses committed by priests on minors, as part of their routine duties in the day to day, in a Church which must be renewed after having been soiled by the 'filth' of sex abuse. This, too, is part of the 'after' in Papa Ratzinger's actions.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is still reviewing the guidelines submitted by the bishops, drawn up to be in accordance as well with the existing laws in each country.
This painstaking scrutiny confirms the enormity of the effort needed to turn the page, doing everything so that the awareness, pain and shame for the evil that has been committed may not be forgotten and be the motivation for a fresh start.
What is strikingly evident, in contrast - which must be pointed out - is that no civilian institution anywhere in the world has shown (or even tried to) the same determination in confronting the problem of sex abuse of minors.
And yet this is a phenomenon that, as this newspaper (
Avvenire), regularly documents, is all too widespread outside the Church, not sparing any environment, being the pervasive center of a criminal economy raking in huge profits from activities that include sexual tourism and child pornography.
Pope Benedict XVI has shown that it does not matter if, statistically, the Church as an institution only has a 'minor' part in this global phenomenon. He has always said that one case of priest abuse against a minor is one too much especially since the offender is supposed to be a man of God.
But it is desirable, nonetheless, and high time, that entities other than the Church show the same determination to place themselves unconditionally on the side of the youngest, the most defenseless, and the weakest members of our society in order to aggressively fight the problem at its roots, wherever and in whatever way it manifests itself.