VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis demanded Friday that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in and vowed that the Catholic Church will “never again” hide their crimes.
Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to Vatican bureaucrats to abuse, evidence that a year of devastating revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up around the globe has shaken his papacy and caused a crisis of confidence in the Catholic hierarchy.
Francis acknowledged that the church in the past had failed to treat the problem seriously, blaming leaders who out of inexperience or short-sightedness acted “irresponsibly” by refusing to believe victims. But he vowed that going forward the church would “never again” cover up or dismiss cases.
“Let it be clear that before these abominations the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes,” he said.
Francis urged victims to come forward, thanked the media for giving them voice and issued a stark warning to abusers: “Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice.”
Francis’ remarks capped a dreadful year for the Catholic Church, one that began with his own botched handling of a sprawling sex abuse scandal in Chile and ended with the U.S. hierarchy in a free-fall of credibility as state prosecutors began uncovering decades of cover-up.
Francis has summoned church leaders from around the globe for a February abuse prevention summit, in an indication that he has come to realize that the problem is greater and more global than he had understood at the start of his pontificate.
Francis’ blanket demand that abusers turn themselves in to face “human justice” was significant, and echoed his previous demands for mafia bosses and corrupt politicians to convert.
Vatican guidelines currently only call for bishops to report priestly abusers to police in those countries where civil law requires it — a technicality that survivors and their advocates have long blasted as a convenient dodge to the church’s moral obligation to protect children regardless of what civil law requires.
Survivors and their advocates found Francis’ words hollow, noting that this week the chief prosecutor in the U.S. state of Illinois accused church officials there of hiding the names of around 500 priests accused of abuse.
“While refusing to reveal the name of one cleric who committed or concealed child sex crimes, Francis gives yet another promise about ending cover ups,” said David Clohessy, former director of the U.S.-based survivor group SNAP. “If he’s serious, Francis could show it by suspending all Illinois bishops until they ‘come clean’ or the attorney general’s investigation clears them of wrongdoing.”
Anne Barrett Doyle of the online resource BishopAccountability said it was fantasy to think that criminals will suddenly turn themselves in, when the Vatican itself has blocked bishops from adopting mandatory reporting norms, such as in Ireland in the 1990s.
“He minimizes and mischaracterizes the protection of abusers by church leaders, chalking it up to lack of training or awareness, rather than a deliberate choice to conceal and deceive,” she said, adding that his claim that the cover-up was a thing of the past is also wrong since it is ongoing.
Francis warned the Vatican bureaucrats who run the 1.2 billion-strong church that the scandal now undermines the credibility of the entire Catholic enterprise and prayed for help so that the Church can discern true cases from false ones, and accusations from slander.
