JUSTICE DENIED

Pope Francis acknowledged that the Vatican is way behind on processing clerical sex abuse cases, to the tune of a 2,000-case backlog. He also said criticism of the slow pace was justified.

Speaking aboard the Papal plane, the Pope further praised the handling of sex abuse cases by survivor Marie Collins, who resigned from the Vatican's sex abuse advisory commission in March.

Collins resigned over what she deemed an "unacceptable" amount of resistance on the Vatican's part to implementing the commission's proposals to improve care for victims and protect children from molestation by priests.  The Pope said Collins was "a bit right" about the slow pace of case processing.

Most interesting is the fact that the Holy Father did not respond to why the Vatican had not created a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests, as recommended by Collins before her departure.

That to me is the heart of the real crisis involving the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors which has been the source of so much scandal and grief.

I have yet to observe the Church addressing the issue seriously and genuinely.

So much has been said about the psychological dysfunction of the Priest-abusers to the effect that they are so disordered they need to be dismissed from the clerical state, a sanction which the Church has stated is necessary to protect children from future abuses and to send a signal that such conduct is the gravest violation of the moral order.

What has always bothered me about the punishment assigned to the Priest-abusers is not how severe it is.  Rather, I find the punitive response confusing because it inflicts punishment upon those who are incapable by the disorders from which they suffer from controlling their behaviors, so much so that the Church considers them irredeemable to the point of dismissal from the clerical state and from exercising any Priestly function.

Even civil and secular jurisprudence recognizes that those who are disordered cannot be held responsible for their crimes.  Sentences requiring mandatory psychological treatment can and are often imposed, but psychologically disordered individuals are not treated as criminals.

Yet, the Church sees fit to punish those who are disordered and allow those who had authority over them and who exercised discretion over their assignments to be free of any responsibility whatsoever.

True, disordered Priest-abusers have victimized thousands of minors.  But what about their respective Bishops who failed to act responsibly and protect those minors who would be victims of repeated abuse by the dysfunctional Priests under their authority?

To date, the Church has responded by punishing the sick and allowing those who covered their crimes to go scott free.

This is not justice.

Allowing Bishops to escape the consequences of their irresponsible and shameful conduct is not justice.

Punishing sick Priest-abusers is not justice.

And delaying the fair and equitable treatment of victims is not justice.

The Church has suffered greatly for these sins and crimes against the most innocent and vulnerable members of Christ’s faithful.  

The Church will continue to suffer until it finally and boldly begins to be honest in addressing this shameful episode in its history and in a way that is just and equitable to all involved.