Vatican City, May 31, 2018 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter to Catholics in Chile on Thursday, Pope Francis said he is ashamed of the Church’s failure to listen to victims, and urged all the baptized to make a commitment to ending the culture of abuse and cover-up.
“Here resides one of our main faults and omissions: not knowing how to listen to victims,” the pope said in his May 31 letter.
Because of this inability to listen, “partial conclusions were drawn, which lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment,” he said, adding that “with shame I must say that we did not know how to listen and react in time.”
The need to investigate the Chilean abuse crisis, he said, “was born when we saw that there were situations that we did not know how to see and hear. As a Church we could not continue to walk ignoring the pain of our brothers.”
Francis stressed the importance of prayer and the role that the People of God have in the Church, saying that to distance oneself from the People of God “hastens us to the desolation and perversion of ecclesial nature.”
“The fight against a culture of abuse requires renewing this certainty,” he said, and urged all Christians not to be afraid of being protagonists of change in the Church.
Francis then thanked the organizations and media outlets which he said took on the issue, “always seeking the truth and not making this painful reality a meditative source for increasing the rating of their programming.”
He also said the process of purification the Church is currently living is due not just to recent events, but the whole process is possible thanks to the effort and perseverance of those who, “against all hope and stains of discredit,” did not tire of seeking the truth.
“I am referring to the victims of abuses of sexuality, power and authority and to those who in this moment believe and accompany them. Victims whose cry rose to heaven,” he said, voicing gratitude for the “courage and perseverance” they have shown.
The “never more” attitude in front of a culture of abuse and the system of cover-up, he said, “demands working among everyone in order to generate a culture of care which permeates our ways of relating, praying, thinking, of living authority; our customs and languages and our relationship with power and money.”
Pope Francis then stressed the urgency of generating spaces where a culture of abuse and concealment is not the “dominant scheme,” and in which a critical and questioning attitude is not confused with “betrayal.”
He then urged all Christians, especially those who work in educational and formational entities and institutions, to pool their resources with civil society in order to find strategic ways of promoting a culture of care and protection.
Abuse and cover-up, he said, are “incompatible with the logic of the Gospel since the salvation offered by Christ is always an offer, a gift which demands and requires freedom,” adding that all attempts against freedom and the integrity of the person “are anti-evangelical.”
The pope then invited centers of religious formation, faculties of theology, and seminaries to launch a theological reflection capable of rising above the present time and promoting a “mature, adult” faith in the Church.
Communities that are able to fight against abuse and which are internally capable of discussion and even confrontation on the issue are welcome, he said, adding that “we will be fruitful in the measure that we empower and open communities from within and thus free ourselves from closed and self-referential thoughts full of promises and mirages which promise life but which ultimately favor the culture of abuse.”
Referring the popular piety practiced in many communities in Chile, which he called an “invaluable treasure and authentic school of the heart for the people of God,” Francis said that in his experience, expressions of popular devotion are “one of the few places where the People of God are sovereign” from the influence of a clericalism which tries to control and limit the laity.
Francis then pointed to all the laity, priests, bishops, and consecrated persons in Chile who have faithfully lived their vocations in love, saying they are Christians who know how to cry with others, to seek justice, and to look with mercy on those who are suffering.
Pope Francis closed his letter saying a Church that is wounded is capable of understanding and being moved by the wounds of today’s world and of both making these wounds their own and accompanying and healing those who bear them.
“A Church with sores does not put itself at the center, it does not believe itself to be perfect, it does not try to conceal and disguise its evil, but puts it before the only one who can heal wounds and who has a name: Jesus Christ.”
This certainty is what will prompt people to look for the commitment to ultimately and in time generate a culture where every person “has the right to breathe an air free of every kind of abuse.”
He urged the entire People of God not to be afraid to get involved and walk, driven by the Holy Spirit in search of a Church “which is increasingly more synodal, prophetic and hopeful,” and which is ultimately “less abusive because it knows to put Jesus at the center in the hungry, in the prisoner, in the migrant, in the abused.”
Francis’ letter coincided with the start of the pope’s second round of meetings with Chilean abuse survivors.
The group, consisting of five priests and two laypersons who suffered either sexual abuse or abuse of power or conscience by Karadima, and two priests who have accompanied the victims, will be in Rome over the weekend to discuss the country’s abuse crisis with the pope.
Francis’ letter comes after a months-long process of addressing the Chilean abuse crisis following an in-depth investigation carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
The investigation was initially centered around Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, appointed to the diocese in 2015 and accused by at least one victim of covering up abuses of Fr. Fernando Karadima.
In 2011, Karadima was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of abusing minors and sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude. Allegations of cover-up were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – whom Karadima’s victims accuse of knowing about Karadima’s crimes and failing to act.
Pope Francis initially defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. However, after receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis apologized in an April 8 letter to the Chilean bishops, and asked to meet the prelates and more outspoken survivors in person.
A few weeks, later, Francis held both private and group meetings with three of Karadima’s most outspoken victims – Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo – at the Vatican April 27-29.
Two weeks later, the pope met with all of Chile’s active bishops in Rome, some of whom have also been accused of cover-up, to discuss the conclusions of Scicluna’s report and to share his own reflections on the crisis.
During the May 15-17 meeting, Francis criticized the 34 bishops present for systematic cover-up of clerical abuse in Chile, and urged them to refocus, putting Christ at the center of their mission.
The gathering concluded with all of Chile’s active bishops offering a written resignation to Francis, which he will either accept or deny. So far, there has been no news of the pope’s decision.
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We read: “The Vatican warned: ‘It would not be permissible to introduce new official structures or doctrines in dioceses before an agreement had been reached at the level of the universal Church…’.”
Permissible? An Agreement? Proceduralism over content; this is a secular game plan…
Before we know it, we’ll be notified in the footnotes that truth is constructed rather than discovered, and that even the Council of Nicaea was only a synodal/consensus sort of thingy, rather than a recollection of what the Church has lived and believed from the beginning in the incarnate Christ. Arius was not “synthesized” (synodal jargon!) into the top-level package; he was rejected.
Can’t see the kind of clarity demonstrated at Nicaea ever coming under Cardinal Hollerich–grand-poobah relator for the 2023 Synod on Synodality–who through the media has already joined with Germania’s Marx and Batzing in calling for the deconstruction of human sexual morality as clearly articulated in the Catechism.
Instead of the Trinity, the triumvirate. What a joke.
Attacks against the church are common in any era. The church stands against all unrighteousness and those who espouse ungodly paths do infiltrate the church in order to destroy their critics.
It appears that Papa is reluctant to stamp out heresy. Some will argue that he sows the seeds of disunity and wishes a church to be a soup kitchen and hostel.
Jesus Christ is our spiritual food and drink. To those who would steal away the essence of the church, let them be excommunicated as a warning to all.
Thank you for steadfast love of truth and proclaiming Christ crucified.
Since this matter has become as serious as stated [most would agree], would not the more effective response to the German Synodal Way be for the pontiff to call an ecumenical council of world bishops, the pontiff in attendance, and required attendance by all German bishops with a set agenda of the issues? If some bishops remain obstinate they may be penalized, if necessary a new German bishops conference and president to replace the former.
That’s a great idea of how to proceed if we had the episcopate of 40 years ago. Currently, I not only don’t trust Francis, but after watching how many of the Cardinals swayed in tune to the trash music of the “Youth Synod” several years ago, I don’t trust an assembled Church leadership to not end up embracing rather than disciplining the Germans.
Alas, so it may be.
I keep asking myself, “Who’s on first.”
No, that would not be the most effective response at the moment Fr. Peter. At the moment, they – the German Bishops – are merely voicing their opinion. Next year, the Bishops will meet, as planned, and then the Germans will know that their views have been totally rejected by the universal Church. Pope Francis has already stated that this journey is not about doctrine.
Fr Peter, why in the world would he do that when he is very much the head of the German Synodal path? This is the symphony he is conducting, the play he is writing and directing.
Just a wild guess.
That tittering sound we hear is Tetzel laughing, possibly in hell.
Instead of him tin-cupping indulgences in the 16th century, the Church in Germany in the 21st century excommunicates those who refuse to pay the federal church-tax, AND, sells out to those who would exchange the entire Church for a “synodal” mess of pottage.
Way back on February 25, 1296, before fledgling nation-states had become radically secularized, Pope Boniface VIII prohibited (in Clericis laicos) “all prelates and in general all persons belonging to the Church” (without the consent of the Holy See) from paying to laymen [today read the ZdK: the lay Central Committee of German Catholics] any ‘imports, taxes, tithes or half tithes or even a one-hundredth part”—on the penalty of ipso facto excommunication.
This penalty of 1296 A.D. was incurred automatically in 1955 by the lay-Catholic, Argentine dictator, Juan Peron. Butt, what will later history say of today’s clerical money-changers and proposed flesh markets in Germania?
The Vatican has issued another warning
Warning, or rather projection?
The single subject on which the Pope seems to speak with razor sharp clarity and focus is his intense dislike of the EF of the Mass and those who are attached to it. Everything else is fog and evasion.
Bergoglio’s Synodal Way poses threat to Catholicism by Design.
Pope Francis’s Synodal Way poses absolutely no threat to our Church. The Holy Spirit is present. Respect His presence and guidance. Pope Francis does.
There is absolutely not purpose to these synods other than to attempt to enshrine anti-Catholic bigotry into the Deposit of Faith.
The warning by Pope Francis to the
liberal “German Synodal Way” is significant for another reason. This is bad for Arch-conservative US Bishops because it puts Francis in the middle as a moderate between arch- conservative US Bishops and radical- liberal German Bishops; and makes it more difficult for US Bishops to claim that Francis is “going too far” to the left. Remember the old saying: “play the middle.” Francis can do that now because of the “radical” Germans, who have pushed US Bishops further to the right and placed Francis in the middle now between the two of them.
Is that the story you tell yourself? The radical Germans? They are very much of the heart of Pope Francis. The Pope pretends to excoriate them. That is all. It is a charade, nothing more.
Francis, himself, poses a threat to the unity of the Church. He refuses to stand against “Catholics” who promote an anti-Catholic agenda when it comes to their public defiance of Church teaching to protect the unborn. And, worse, he admonishes those shepherds who seek to bring members of their flocks back into the fold. Add his admiration for James Martin, and the case becomes airtight. Compassion is one thing, but when it silences the teaching of the Church, it is no longer compassionate.
Oh, there is no silence. Pope Francis, our teacher, has made it clear that abortion is an evil act, and those who support it are not in communion with the Church and so should not receive communion.
Donna, St Paul tells us the same thing. BTW, Is there any statement in the Bible that says they should be refused communion?
Steeped in mortal sin….Cordileone’s letter explains it.
Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, but don’t get wrapped up in sola scriptura, Mal. Canon 915 also addresses the subject of excommunication, which one does to oneself when denying the teaching of the Church and presenting oneself to receive the Eucharist.
Donna, it is truly our belief that if the teachings of the Church are denied then, when this is done, one excommunicates one’s self. This is exactly what Pope Francis has said on a few occasions.
Does the priest, who is distributing Holy Communion, really know what is lurking in the minds and hearts of all those who come up to receive the sacred bread? It is possible that many of these people do not accept or live by all the teachings of the Church. The onus is on the receiver. St. Paul makes it clear that these people eat and drink judgment upon themselves.
Mal,
Excommunication is used when a transgression is public. Not privately held in the heart.
When the archbishop of New Orleans excommunicated segregationists he only used that discipline for those who loudly and publicly continued unrepentant in error. If holding segregation beliefs silently in one’s heart was grounds for excommunication the archbishop would have need to excommunicate virtually every white person under his jurisdiction. That was the sad condition of civil rights in that time and region.
Where is it in the BIBLE??? Spoken like a Protestant. Are you?? As you must know the Catholic church is based on more than that alone. There is an old saying that actions speak louder than words. Having spoken several times to the Germans no effect, its time for the Pope to actually do something. Call in the particular German Bishops for a session of discipline including a time of quiet reflection on there actions for some extended period of time at some isolated monastery. As for your commentary above to my post, people commit many sins. No matter how bad, they will be forgiven if repented of. In the main those sins are committed by private people of no public note. The actions of the German bishops are much more serious as they threaten the unity of the church. Further they have made statements suggesting it is the church which must change to reflect modern times. Women priest, gay marriage , communion for non catholics are all on their agendA which they defiantly continue to push publicly. Time for Frances to put and end to these ramblings before bigger damage is done.
1 Corinthians 5:11
The Amish reference scripture verses for their practice of shunning which like excommunication is really meant to awaken people to the gravity of their transgressions in hopes they will repent.
Exodus 20:13 – Thou shalt not kill.
Exodus 20:16 – Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Only a hypocrite would support abortion (or another intrinsically evil act) while presenting oneself for Holy Communion. Such a hypocrite is like the Pharisee about whom you often write. His thinking is warped and fossilized. He is a self-styled judge against the word of God and the 2000-year-old Magisterium of the Catholic Church. One who loves God knows Him and keeps His commandments.
Catholic works of mercy compel us to instruct the ignorant and to admonish the sinner. This is the work of the Church and the work of each of the faithful.
Sure, sure. Then he hails the number one abortionist in Italy as one of its greats.
A landmark event happens with the overturning of Roe V Wade and he is mum.
Sola Scriptura? Catholicism, unlike Protestantism, affirms it is a grievance sin to be in grievance sin and receive communion and for a priest or high prelate to knowingly facillitate the act.
Yes, and back in olden times we even had the following from the Council of Trent:
“CANON XI. If any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is bothered with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated.”
Today, more complicated than abortion, because regarding the possible psychological complexity of aberrant sexual activities, in individual cases, the new Catechism carefully recognizes mitigating circumstances affecting subjective guilt (those individuals (!) whose consciences might be aware of “grave” but not fully deliberate “mortal” sin).
But it is precisely this so-called (!) “grey area” of mitigation—in individual cases—which Marx, Batzing, Hollerich and Grech would like to expand and exploit into a morally exempt category (!) for a contrived category of (LGBTQ) persons. And, indeed, even for unmarried and non-celibate heterosexuals as well (equity!).
Alchemy by a new name: synodality.
Thanks. Well said.
Well, well.
Tepid, but maybe a beginning.
Pope Francis cannot avoid being drawn out in this. Schism is a real possibility considering the declarations coming from the German Synod.
As promised by Christ, the Holy Spirit will have the final say on the Deposit of Faith.
As he has said before he is ok with schism. He is likely enjoying this.
It sounds as though the devil is alive and well in Germany. What is our Pope waiting for? Excommunicate those responsible.
James, you can wait until pigs fly if you are waiting for the Pope to do anything about it. They are merely executing his playbook.
The warning by about the liberal “German Synodal Way” is significant for another reason. This is bad for Arch-conservative US Bishops because it puts Francis in the middle as a moderate between arch- conservative US Bishops and radical- liberal German Bishops; and makes it more difficult for US Bishops to claim that Francis is “going too far” to the left. Remember the old saying: “play the middle.” Francis can do that now because of the “radical” Germans, who have pushed US Bishops further to the right and placed Francis in the middle now between the two of them.
“The Roman Pontiff has
full, SUPREME and universal POWER over the WHOLE Church, a power which he can always exercise UNHINDERED.” Cathechism # 882.
Yet ANOTHER “warning”???? How ineffective and banal. When is the Vatican ( aka the Pope) actually going to DO something about the German Church? Endless meetings and warnings have evidently resolved NOTHING and the fact that the German church roars on toward their goal of schism unimpeded ( for that is the only explanation which makes sense) is an indictment of the Pope. He refuses to protect the church from being publicly injured. Instead , crazed liberal clerics are deluding scores of Catholics that their way is fine and dandy. It would seem the pope has had too many “who am I to judge” moments and has abdicated his role. SOMEBODY has to judge, and that somebody is HIM. Tip-toeing around the truth will serve no one.
Wow! What if somebody else was to judge? He would kick out these Germans for merely expressing an opinion, kick out those who have had abortions, who take contraceptive pills, who have lustful thoughts, who have Pharisaical attitudes (our Lord denounced them) who allow some form of bigotry to reign in their lives etc. etc.
I don’t think the Germans are merely expressing an opinion. They are making up changes specifically to sacraments contrary to Magisterium. And if acts are no longer recognized as sin then what’s the point of the confessional. Self and pride certainly does not examine conscience. And I wonder how does the Holy Family hold as an image? It ain’t Joseph, Joseph and Jesus or Mary, Mary and Jesus. Will even that sacred image be tossed aside for wokeness?
Mal, don’t you know that abortion is an automatic excommunication?
Pope Francis has made it clear to this group – which is not the whole German Church – “If they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence the need always to ensure communion with the whole body of the Church.”
Here is another strong statement: “In order to safeguard the freedom of the People of God and the exercise of the episcopal ministry, it seems necessary to clarify that the ‘Synodal Way’ in Germany does not have the power to compel bishops and the faithful to adopt new forms of governance and new orientations of doctrine and morals.”
Natural calamities like droughts, forest fires, thunderstorms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, diseases, hunger, joblessness, homelessness, air and water pollution – are making life difficult for people in different parts of the world.
Yawn. Surely.
Well put Meiron.
The changes that the German “Bishops” proper with special regard to homosexuality, blessing same sex marriages. etc is a\particulatly grievous and deserving of a harsh warning to defrock and even excommunicate priests that participate in such activity…..I am moved to ask what good comes out of Germany after Martin Lither, Karl Marx, Adolph Hitler and now this!