Vatican

Vatican City, May 8, 2018 / 11:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life published updated statutes Tuesday, reconfirming their connection with the re-formed Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute, established by Pope Francis in September 2017.

The statutes say the dicastery “is directly linked to the ‘Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences,’ both with headquarters and affiliated institutes, to promote a common direction in marriage, family and life studies.”

The new statutes also state a required minimum of only two lay under-secretaries, rather than the previously required three – one to head each of the three sections on laity, family and life – suggesting that the awaited appointment of a third under-secretary may be on hold.

The dicastery had two under-secretaries, Dr. Gabriella Gambino for the section on laity and Dr. Linda Ghisoni for the section on life, appointed late last year.

An additional update is the dicastery’s work to “deepen the reflection on the relationship between men and women in their respective specificity, reciprocity, complementarity and equal dignity” and to promote the participation of women in the Church and society, through valuing the “feminine genius.”

Regarding youth, the dicastery also highlighted the “particular concern of the Church for the young… in the midst of the challenges of today’s world” and stated its support for the pope’s initiatives in the area of youth ministry.

Pope Francis approved the statutes ad experimentum, which could possibly be until the completion of a new apostolic constitution outlining the structure and duties of the Roman Curia, which is being drafted by the Council of Cardinals.

The dicastery, which replaced separate pontifical councils on the family and on the laity, was established Sept. 1, 2016. It is headed by Prefect Cardinal Kevin Farrell and Secretary Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello, who was appointed in May 2017.

Cardinal Farrell has said, in reference to controversy over Pope Francis’ writings on family life, that “we need to say what our teaching is, and that’s not a yes and no answer.”

According to the statutes, which go into effect May 13, the dicastery has the task of dealing with projects related to the broad topics of the apostolate of the laity, the institution of marriage, and the family within the life of the Church, including the organization of events and the support of theological studies related to these areas.

The dicastery is responsible for the World Meeting of Families and World Youth Day.

It is to promote pastoral care of the family “in the light of the papal Magisterium”, protecting its dignity and wellbeing “based on the sacrament of marriage” and fostering “its rights and responsibility in the Church and in civil society, so that the family institution can always better fulfil its functions both in the ecclesial and in the social sphere.”

The disastery will “discern the signs of the times to value opportunities in favour of the family, take on with trust and evangelical wisdom the challenges that relate to it, and apply in today’s society and in history the plan of God for marriage and the family,” which the statutes link in particular to the World Meeting of Families.

It also “monitors the activity of Catholic institutes, associations, movements and organizations … whose purpose is to serve the good of the family.”

Regarding life issues, it promotes and supports “responsible procreation” and organizations “which help women and families to welcome and cherish life, especially in the case of difficult pregnancies and to prevent abortion.” It also supports organizations which help post-abortive women.

The dicastery supports “the protection of human life from conception to its natural end, bearing in mind the needs of the person in the various stages of evolution.”

It also studies and promotes formation in biomedicine and law based on Catholic moral doctrine and the Magisterium.

Other projects will include formation of engaged and newly married couples, and the promotion of openness to the adoption and fostering of children.

Referencing paragraphs 296-306 of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on love in the family, Amoris laetitia, the statutes say the dicastery “expresses the pastoral care of the Church also in relation to so-called ‘irregular’ situations.”

The statutes also make reference to the Second Vatican Council’s constitutions Lumen gentium, on the Church, and Gaudium et spes, on the Church in the modern world.

The Pontifical Academy for Life is also connected to the dicastery, as it relates to issues connected with its competency.

Pope Francis re-founded what was previously the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Sept. 19, 2017, making it a theological institute charged with studying marriage and the family from a scientific perspective.

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Vatican City, May 7, 2018 / 10:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The ongoing crisis in Venezuela has produced a tremendous flow of emigration, with thousands fleeing the instability and hyperinflation under Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

Venezuelans who choose to leave their country, as with any migrant, face a plethora of obstacles, risks, and unknowns, including an increased number of neighboring nations closing their doors, as well as the danger of falling victim to traffickers.

In a bid to help host countries support the influx of their Venezuelan neighbors and provide migrants the resources they need to integrate into their new countries, the Vatican’s office for migrants and refugees has partnered with eight South American bishops’ conferences in launching a project aimed at providing this support.

Titled “Bridges of Solidarity,” the project was presented May 7 by the two undersecretaries of the Vatican’s migrant office – part of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and is overseen by Pope Francis directly – Fr. Michael Czerny, SJ, and Fr. Fabio Baggio, as well as Fr. Arturo Sosa, father general of the Society of Jesus and himself a Venezuelan.

The office is partnering with the bishops of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

The project is in line with the 20 actions points drafted by the Vatican’s migrant section as part of Pope Francis’ 4-step plan for assisting migrants and refugees: to welcome, protect, promote and integrate.

Services offered through the project, which is designed to run for 24 months, include the building of centers and shelters for migrants; assistance finding housing and jobs; the facilitation of access to education and healthcare; advocacy and legal assistance; professional training of pastoral workers and awareness campaigns aimed at sensitizing local communities to the needs of migrants and the risks they face.

Funding, according to Fr. Baggio, happens partially at a local level, but the dicastery also helps in seeking support from private donors and partnerships.

Fr. Czerny said the department’s mission is to “assist the Church wherever needed, wherever possible, in accompanying migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking.”

As a refugee himself, Czerny said one of the biggest areas they want to address helping migrants to have access to good information, thus lowering the risks they face along the way.

The looming questions for any migrant, Czerny said, are “what awaits you? What lies ahead? What do you need to know now that’s going to happen that you can be a bit better prepared? Or are you always arriving shocked, surprised and disappointed?”

“I don’t think there’s a better example of where the Church, throughout [the continent] can cooperate so that as people undertake these difficult journeys and that they are supplied with good information all along the way,” he said, referring to the new project.

Providing the right information, he said, plays a key role in the prevention of trafficking, “because people are trafficked when they lack the necessary information in order to make good decisions.”

In comments to CNA, Czerny said migrants generally lack two key areas information, the first being the practical “what do you do when…” info, as well as answers to questions about what a migrant should do when they arrive to a bus station or shelter, and what to say and not to say.

The other area is a lack of correct information, he said, noting there is often an abundance of false information that reaches migrants, and “false information is the beginning of the trafficking problem…people are oriented in the wrong direction and they end up trapped.”

Compounding the issue is the fact that many see the issue as something chaotic, assuming that it would be difficult to get the right information to migrants in the first place.

However, “when we look at it practically it’s not chaotic, it’s practical. It’s people, and people are coming and if you have good information you can share it,” Czerny said, adding that cell phones and other digital tools make it easy to share information, “but it has to be good information.”

Pope Francis has often been outspoken about the issue of trafficking. He addressed the topic again, speaking specifically about the problem of false information, in a video message to the Second International Forum on Modern Slavery, taking place May 5-8 in Argentina, published May 7.

The pope said slavery is not something of the past, but is a grim reality for many men, women and children throughout the world.

Confronted with this “tragic reality,” the pope said “no one can wash their hands who does not want to be, in some way, complicit in this crime against humanity.”

He spoke of the need to overcome “the veil of indifference” covering this issue, and said it often times appears as if “many don’t want to understand the scope of the problem.”

“There are those who, being directly involved in criminal organizations, don’t want this to be talked about simply because they get high profits thanks to the new forms of slavery,” he said, noting that there are also those who know about the problem, but don’t want to talk about it “because they find themselves at the end of the chain of consumption.”

According to Fr. Czerny, the problem of prostitution, to which the pope was likely referring, is the biggest area of trafficking that migrants fall victim to.

Pope Francis said that enforcing stricter laws are not enough, but the root causes must also be addressed, such as poverty, violence, and corruption.

The response to this issue, he said, must be based on creating opportunities for a true integral human development, beginning with education, which he said is “the key point.”

Francis closed his message noting that the task is a difficult one which requires both patience and perseverance, but which will help in building “a society that is renewed and oriented toward freedom, justice and peace.”

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Vatican City, May 6, 2018 / 05:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- God’s love requires that we give our best to each and every one of our brothers and sisters, even those who are in the final stage of their life, Pope Francis said during his Regina Coeli add… […]

Vatican City, May 5, 2018 / 03:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Chronic pain reduction. Improvement in paralysis. Restoration of sight amid macular degeneration. These are just some of the results being seen in experimental treatments using virtual reality technology.

And this technology could help answer Pope Francis’ call for doctors and scientists to collaborate in pursuing bold and creative approaches to medicine.

Stressing the importance of ethics and defense of human life, the pope at an April 28 conference called for an “open interdisciplinary approach that engages multiple experts and institutions,” which can lead “to a reciprocal exchange of knowledge.” He also encouraged “concrete actions on behalf of those who suffer.”

For at least one representative who was present at the conference, the future of medical care could rely significantly on the tech industry, using tools such as augmented and virtual reality as a treatment for certain conditions.

In an interview with CNA, Dr. David Rhew said virtual reality is already used in training scenarios for doctors and nurses, but is starting to be used to treat medical conditions as well.

Rhew is the chief medical officer, vice president and general manager of B2B Healthcare for Samsung Electronics America. He spoke at the Vatican’s April 26-28 “Unite to Cure” about the use of VR technology in medicine.

Virtual reality, he told CNA, is already used as a treatment in cases of pain relief, macular degeneration and spinal cord injury, and further research is being done in VR treatments for concussions, brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and strokes.

In aiding with pain management, Rhew said the aim of using virtual reality is to lessen dependence on narcotics and help patients deal with their discomfort in a more soothing, natural way.

Rhew said that patients underwent experimental treatment watched a calming video for 10-15 minutes through a VR headset, and afterward it took several hours or even days for the pain to come back, if it did at all.

In one randomized control trial conducted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, 120 patients were randomly selected. Half were given VR pain treatment, while the rest were shown content on a regular television set.

Doctors saw a 52 percent pain reduction in the patients who used VR versus those who watched regular television, which is a “dramatic, remarkable” outcome, Rhew said.

Results have even been seen in children who suffer chronic pain due to sickle cell anemia. In at least one case, he said, a person came in with pain and left with no medication after using the VR headset.

“We’ve actually now been starting to think how can we go beyond even acute hospitalization, and even start thinking about how this could be used in the ambulatory setting and potentially be used to address the opioid epidemic,” he said.

The hope is that virtual reality could be used as an alternative to opioid treatments, so patients never have to start on narcotics, or can stop if they are currently using them.

Macular degeneration – in which the central part of the eye is damaged, usually resulting significant vision loss – has also been successfully treated with virtual reality.

“Researchers have long known that despite the fact that you have injuries to [the macula], other parts of the retina are still in tact,” Rhew said, noting that opthamologists have used virtual reality to target an area of the eye called the “preferred retinal locus (PRL),” which is small and hard to locate, but which can lead to better vision if found and utilized.

“Using the VR headset with an eye-tracking software helps locate the PRL,” and the magnification ability on the camera helps zoom in on the area they are looking for.

In one study carried out by Johns Hopkins University, some patients walked in legally blind and left with 20/30 vision, rhew said. This allows people “to do things they were never able to do – they can now read a book, they can watch TV, they can even do gardening.”

VR technology is currently being used as a treatment by some 80 opthamologist centers across the United States, including UCLA, but not many people know about it, he said.

Spinal cord injuries have also been treated with virtual reality.

“What we’ve seen is that in patients who have injured the spinal cord, like we talked about with the eye, they may have lost some of the major components of the neuro-pathways, but some of the minor ones are still intact, and we in general have not figured out how to utilize those minor ones,” Rhew said.

The virtual reality “tricks” the brain by targeting and activating pathways in the brain and spine that might still be intact and could lead to eventual mobility.

In a case study of eight patients who suffered from chronic paraplegia from anywhere between 3-18 years, after undergoing a year of an intensive VR treatment with physical therapy, “all of them were upgraded from paraplegia to partial paralysis.”

“This can help us in managing patients and restoring function for those with disabilities,” but success depends on individual effort, Rhew said, explaining that “we have it within ourselves but we sometimes need that ability to go over that little hump, and technology can sometimes help us.”

Rhew said he believes the unanticipated rise in VR and digital treatments is due in part to the fact that devices have become more powerful, battery life has grown longer and storage has increased.

Increasing use of mobile phones is also a factor, since the technology can be accessed from anywhere. Additionally, VR can in many cases be significantly cheaper than typical medical equipment.

“We’re going to continue to learn more over the coming years, the technology is going to get better, we’re probably going to able to make further advancements, we’re going to improve the user experience” and will likely participate in more clinical trials, Rhew said.

Doctors will also likely become increasingly aware that they can “truly use this as an adjunct or alternative to things today that are major issues. So I see it improving the lives of people pretty dramatically, especially those with disabilities.”

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Vatican City, May 5, 2018 / 12:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As 33 new Swiss Guards prepare to take an oath Sunday, the entire army is preparing to expand its ranks by two dozen members to respond to increasing administrative demands while ensuring guards ar… […]

Rome, Italy, May 5, 2018 / 05:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics have a mission to evangelize, teaching people that God never tires of loving them, Pope Francis said to members of the Neocatechumenal Way Saturday at a gathering for the 50th anniversary … […]

Vatican City, May 4, 2018 / 04:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prayer, poverty, and patience are essential to living religious life, Pope Francis said Friday to a gathering of consecrated men and women.

The pope set aside his prepared remarks and spoke extemporaneously May 4 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to some 700 participants in a conference organized by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

He was reflecting on discernment and how to avoid losing oneself among worldliness and provocations.

The pope jokingly said the Holy Spirit “is a calamity, because he never tires of being creative.”

“Now, with the new forms of consecrated life, he is so creative, with the charisms … He is the author of diversity, but at the same time is Creator of unity. This is the Holy Spirit. And with the diversity of charisms and many things, he makes a unity of the Body of Christ, and also the unity of consecrated life. And this too is a challenge.”

Francis posited that the Holy Spirit wants prayer, poverty, and patience to stay strong in consecrated life.

For the consecrated person, prayer is “turning always to the first call … to that Person who has called me,” he said.

Consecrated life is a call to renounce all things for the sake of the gospel, and for the consecrated person “every prayer has to turn back to this … prayer is that which makes me work for the Lord, not for my interests or for the institution in which I work, no, for the Lord.”

Pope Francis reiterated that for the consecrated person prayer is a return to the meeting with the Lord in which they were called by him.

“And prayer, in the consecrated life, is the air which makes us breathe that call, renew that call. Without this air we could not be good consecrated persons. We would be perhaps good persons, Christians, Catholics who do many works in the Church, but consecration you must continually renew, in prayer, in an encounter with the Lord,” he said.

CNA contacted the Holy See Press Office about these unclear remarks concerning prayer and those living in the world, but did not receive a response by deadline.

The Pope went on to say that there are no excuses for not devoting time to prayer, including busyness, pointing to St. Teresa of Calcutta as an example. Someone might say: “But I’m busy, I’m busy, I have so many things to do,” he pointed out, stating “[prayer] is more important: Go pray.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta had concerns, he acknowledged, yet “the two hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, nobody took them away from her… Do as she did, do the same.”

Another reason prayer is so important for men and women in consecrated life, he said, is that it helps to direct action to the correct purpose, keeping the focus on God, instead of just serving an institution or one’s own interests.

“Search for your Lord, the one who called you… Not just in the morning,” he said. “Everyone must look for how to do it, where to do it, when to do it. But always do it, pray. One cannot live the consecrated life, one cannot discern what is happening without speaking with the Lord.”

Pope Francis then turned to poverty, which he noted St. Ignatius of Loyola called the mother of consecrated life.

“Without poverty there is no fecundity in consecrated life,” he said. The spirit of poverty is necessary for discernment, and is a defense against all that would destroy consecrated life.

Even in religious life there can be a worldliness, the Pope said, which comes from a lack of poverty; vanity; and pride.

Francis finally spoke about the quality of patience in consecrated life, which, he said, is not just about bearing patiently with those with whom we live and work – it is also about bearing patiently with the suffering of the world, “carrying [it] on the shoulders.”

“Enter into patience,” he said, because without patience “you cannot be magnanimous, you cannot follow the Lord.”

Internal struggles in a congregation and careerism at general chapters are attributable to impatience, the Pope said.

There must even be patience in the face of a lack of vocations, he added. Choosing to stop accepting members and to sell off the community’s property is a sign that the congregation “is close to death” and has become attached to money, rather than having the patience to pray for new vocations.

This “art of dying well” – a congregation choosing not to pursue prospective vocations – is a “spiritual euthanasia” which “doesn’t have the courage to follow the Lord … We follow [Jesus] to a certain point and by the first or second trial, goodbye.”

The pope concluded by telling the consecrated men and women that they will surely be fruitful if they are prayerful, poor, and patient.

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Vatican City, May 4, 2018 / 12:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Six weeks after resigning as head of the Vatican communications office over a fake news controversy, Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano gave a talk on the subject of fake news at a high-profile conference in Rome.

In the April 28 panel, titled “Fake News and the Ethical Responsibilities of Media,” Msgr. Vigano stressed the importance of transparency in the media and said journalists who publish false or inaccurate information risk “poisoning” their readers.

He spoke for a Q&A panel discussion alongside Max Gomez, PhD after a keynote speech was given by Mehmet C. Öz, MD. The session was part of a wider, April 14-20 “Unite to Cure” conference gathering doctors, scientists and celebrities such as Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom to talk about new developments in medicine.

The conference, held inside the Vatican, was co-organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the CURA Foundation.

In his comments during the panel, Vigano said the push for transparency on the web, especially when it comes to large organizations, “is absolutely urgent.”

He suggested reading a book on the “job of the reporter,” which outlines the “paradigm” between a doctor and a journalist, arguing that while the doctor impacts the physical well-being of their patients, a journalist impacts the mental well-being of their readers.

“The journalist, like the doctor, has the ability to poison their readers [but] with one difference, which is that the journalist can poison more readers than a doctor can patients,” he said.

Vigano said this fact means that for journalists, a “great ethical responsibility” is required, and that this responsibility grows as the danger of fake news increases.

Pointing to the conversation between Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Vigano said the serpent’s comment – “Is it true that God told you that you will die if you eat of the fruit of the tree of life?” – is a classic example of fake news in the form of misinformation.

“Fake news has a mimetic dynamic,” he said, explaining that it does not seem false right away, since there are likely some elements of truth. This, he said, is why “it’s very important right now to remember the great ethical responsibility.”

With the rapid change in media, which is increasingly based on digital platforms rather than traditional outlets such as newspapers, knowledge is no longer communicated through a specific “pedagogical path,” but is shared through far-reaching, unspecific networks.

“With this knowledge, or this presumed knowledge, everyone is drinking through the interface,” and this creates a complex situation, Vigano said, because users browsing the internet likely do not have an “attention to falsification” or an “asceticism of questioning,” meaning they are more vulnerable to fake news.

Many media outlets, such as blogs, quickly become their own small corporations, publishing news they think will resonate with people belonging to a certain determined group, making it easier to produce and share false information for the sake of getting clicks, he said.

And while medical communication is more targeted and personal, digital media and social networks are global, meaning the risk factor is higher, he added.

Vigano’s talk fell just six weeks after his March 21 resignation as prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications following what has come to be known as the “Lettergate” scandal.

It began after the Monday, March 12, launch of the 11-book series “The Theology of Pope Francis,” published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican publishing house overseen by the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications.

A letter from Benedict XVI praising Francis’ theological and philosophical formation was read aloud at the event, however, the secretariat later admitted to tampering with an image of the letter that was sent to media, blurring out lines in which Benedict said that he had not read the full series, and so was not able to offer an in-depth analysis of the text.

Days later, it was revealed that further paragraphs had been left out in which Benedict questioned the inclusion in the series of a theologian known for his “anti-papal initiatives.”

After receiving pressure from the media, the secretariat published the full letter March 17, which they said was confidential and never intended to be published in its entirety.

Following Vigano’s resignation, Pope Francis named Msgr. Lucio Ruiz, former secretary of the department, as an interim prefect, but asked Vigano to stay on in an advisory role, which he continues to hold.

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Vatican City, May 4, 2018 / 05:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fifteen months after appointing Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu as his personal envoy to the Knights of Malta, Pope Francis extended the original mandate, requesting that the bishop stay in the p… […]

Vatican City, May 3, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- On Wednesday, three Chilean survivors of clerical sexual abuse held a press conference to discuss their meetings with Pope Francis about the circumstances surrounding their abuse.

Juan Carlos Cruz, along with James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, were sexually abused by Fr. Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing minors during the 1980s and 1990s. Karadima was sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Karadima’s abuse has drawn recent attention because of long-rumored reports that his one-time friend, now-Bishop Juan Barros, helped to cover up the abuse, or was a participant in it. Barros was appointed to lead the Diocese of Osorno in January 2015, despite considerable protest in Chile, and despite objections from some of Chile’s bishops. Barros’ appointment has been a matter of serious controversy over since.

In January of this year, Pope Francis visited Chile and publicly defended Barros, saying that accusations against him were “calumny,” and that he had seen no proof of the bishop’s involvement in Karadima’s abuse. Those remarks drew serious rebukes, including one from Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, chair of the pope’s commission on sexual abuse, and the pope apologized for the tone of his remarks, while insisting on the innocence of Barros.

After Francis visited Chile, he sent Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, a highly regarded canonical expert in clerical sexual abuse, to investigate the claims against Barros.

Shortly after Scicluna was dispatched to Chile, the Associated Press reported that in February 2015, Cruz had sent Francis a letter detailing accusations that Barros was complicit in Karadima’s abuse. Barros was installed as Bishop of Osorno in March 2015, a little more than a month after Cruz’ letter was sent. O’Malley was said to have delivered the letter to the pope in April 2015.

After his visit to Chile, Scicluna filed a 2,300 page report on the matter, which has not been made publicly available.

On April 11, Francis sent a letter to Chile’s bishops saying that he had made “serious errors in judgement regarding the matter,” which he attributed to “a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

The pope invited the three abuse survivors to meet with him, and summoned Chile’s entire episcopate to meet with him in the Vatican; that meeting will take place later this month.  

During their May 2 press conference, the abuse survivors said Francis had apologized to them for “being part of the problem,” and they said the pope was “very attentive, receptive, and very empathetic” while they spoke “frankly and respectfully” with them.

Cruz told reporters that “it was clear that the pope was misinformed.” The survivors mentioned that Archbishop Ivo Scapolo, apostolic nuncio to Chile, was part of the problem, along with Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago and a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisers.

Hamilton told reporters that Errazuriz failed to act on abuse reports, saying that the cardinal “was covering up for more than 5 years the criminal of Karadima and all of his acts.”

It is is possible that at the time Francis appointed Barros to Osorno, he was indeed misinformed, especially if Errazuriz and Scalpo failed to adequately inform the pope of any credible reports against Barros.

But the lingering question is whether, and how, Pope Francis remained misinformed after Cruz wrote a letter to the Pope.

In the first place, it is possible that O’Malley did not deliver the letter to Pope Francis.

In April 2015, Marie Collins, then a member of the pope’s sexual abuse commission, delivered to O’Malley Cruz’ letter, and asked him to the deliver it to Pope Francis.

The Archdiocese of Boston declined to comment on this matter to CNA, referring questions to the Vatican. The Vatican’s press office declined to answer questions on the letter.
   
However, the Associated Press reports that O’Malley later told both Collins and Cruz that he had delivered the letter to the pope and communicated their concerns about Barros.

In February, Boston Globe columnist Joe Cullen also said that O’Malley’s spokesman, Terry Donilon, “did confirm to me that O’Malley, in fact, delivered to the pope a letter from Juan Carlos Cruz in which Cruz accused Barros of knowing that a notorious priest named Francisco Karadima routinely molested boys, including Cruz himself.”

O’Malley’s credibility on sexual abuse matters is unimpeachable, and he seems to have communicated to Cruz, Collins, and Donilon that he delivered the letter. To Cruz and Collins, he also seems to have confirmed conveying their concerns to Pope Francis. It is unlikely that the letter went undelivered.

What is not clear is how O’Malley delivered the letter: whether he handed it directly to Pope Francis, and summarized the contents, or whether he delivered it to an aide.

If O’Malley delivered the letter to an aide, or if Francis passed it on to an aide, it is possible that it never made its way back to the pope. In that case, serious questions would need to be answered about whether someone on the pope’s personal staff was protecting Barros, or shielding Francis from bad news. Such things would not be unprecedented; but in a matter as serious as this, they demand accountability.

It is also possible, and perhaps most probable, that although Francis says he was misinformed, he did read the 2015 letter from Cruz. It seems likely that, after reading it, Francis would have consulted with Errazuriz, his close adviser and a Chilean. Given that Errazuriz is already alleged to have discounted allegations involving Barros, he might have discredited Cruz’ account.

Francis had previously blamed criticism of Barros on Chile’s “leftists.” It is possible that Errazuriz, Scalpo, or others convinced the pope that Cruz’ allegations were rooted in a political attack on the Church, or on Barros. Throughout his pontificate, Francis has shown little patience for Latin American “leftists.” If that scenario is the case, the mistake was accepting the narrative discrediting Cruz, instead of investigating the matter.

Francis has made mistakes before regarding sexual abuse, most notably in the case of Fr. Mauro Inzoli, an Italian removed from ministry by Benedict XVI, restored to ministry by Francis in 2014, and then dismissed from the clerical state by Francis in 2017, after he was sentenced in 2016 by a civil court to a prison term for eight counts of sexually abusing children. Francis blamed his initial reversal on being new to his office, and not understanding the case fully. Some clerics close to the pope say that Francis was persuaded to restore Inzoli to ministry after pontifical advisers made a personal plea to the pope. It is possible that, in matters of sexual abuse, Francis trusts advisers without sufficiently investigating circumstances himself.

Nevertheless, Francis has long advocated a position of “zero tolerance” for clerics who commit abuse, and taken a hard line on bishops who fail to take abuse allegations seriously. In 2015, he accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, then Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph, who was convicted of a misdemeanor after failing to report allegations that a priest was in possession of child pornography. Ironically, some of Finn’s decisions in that affair were attributed to trust placed in advisers who turned out to be wrong.

After meeting with the Pope, Karadima’s victims told reporters that they are “waiting for actions.” They’re not the only ones; how Francis acts now will likely be considered a barometer of how seriously he is willing to act on sexual abuse issues.

The pope is likely to accept the resignation of Bishop Juan Barros in the weeks to come. He will also have to decide who was responsible for misinforming him, and what the consequences will be. And he will have to consider carefully when to trust advisers, and when he is obliged to take matters into his own hands.

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