RNS Digest

c. 2010 Religion News Service

Vatican orders bishops to report charges to police

By Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The Vatican on April 12 published an online guide to its disciplinary procedures in processing cases of sexually abusive priests, including a mandate to co-operate with local civil authorities.

Running less than 700 words in length, the guide is intended for lay people and non-specialists in church law. Based on a 2001 decree by Pope John Paul II, it explains in ordinary language the rules followed by church officials, both at the local level and at the Vatican, in investigating and punishing cases of sex abuse.

According to the guide, the “local diocese investigates every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric,” and refers every allegation with a “semblance of truth” to the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which since 2001 has had global jurisdiction over cases of pedophile priests.

“Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed,” the guide notes.

Some critics have pointed to a 2001 letter by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, imposing a “pontifical secret” on all sex abuse investigations as evidence he conspired to cover up for pedophile priests. The Vatican has insisted that bishops were never forbidden to report such crimes to the local civil authorities.

The online guide emphasizes the local bishop’s “power to protect children by restricting the activities of any priest in his diocese,” even before investigations have concluded.

Recent weeks have brought charges that Ratzinger, who ran the Vatican’s doctrinal office from 1981 until his election as pope in 2005, delayed acting against pedophile priests despite entreaties from local bishops who sought to discipline them.

The “most serious” penalty that can be imposed on a clerical sex abuser is defrocking (“dismissal from the clerical state”), either as a result of a trial or in rare cases by decree of the pope, the guide notes.

When accused priests themselves asked to be defrocked, the document notes, the pope can choose to grant their requests “for the good of the church.”

The guide notes that changes to the law governing the Vatican’s handling of sex abuse allegations are currently “under discussion,” but any such modifications “will not change” the rules outlined in the document.

Pope willing to meet with more abuse victims

By Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI is ready to hold more meetings with victims of clerical sex abuse, his top spokesperson stated on April 9.

“The pope has written that he is available for new meetings with (victims), taking the same path as the whole community of the church,” wrote Rev. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, on the website of Vatican Radio.

Lombardy also called for continued application of internal church discipline against clerical sex abusers and “collaboration with the civil authorities ... taking into account the specific laws and situations of different countries.”

Last month, in an open letter to Irish Catholics regarding the church’s sex abuse crisis, Benedict recalled that “on several occasions since my election to the See of Peter, I have met with victims of sexual abuse, as indeed I am ready to do in the future.”

“I have sat with them, I have listened to their stories, I have acknowledged their suffering, and I have prayed with them and for them,” Benedict wrote.
Over the last two years, Benedict has met with abuse victims from Australia, Canada and the United States.

Earlier this week, two of the five victims who met with the pope during his April 2008 visit to the US announced plans for a demonstration in Rome this October to call for more action to prevent sex abuse and help victims.

“It’s been two years now, and little has been done,” Bernie McDaid, one of the victims, told the National Catholic Reporter.

On Friday, an advocate for abuse victims dismissed the pope’s willingness to hold further meetings as insignificant.

“Kids need and deserve immediate protection and dramatic reform, not public relations ploys and photo ops,” said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “They need substance, not symbols.”

Poll: Pope’s approval ratings plummet over abuse scandal

By Kimberlee Hauss

(RNS) — As sex abuse scandals continue to roil the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s approval ratings have plummeted, according to a new study, with 44 per cent of Americans saying he has done a “poor” job handling the issue.

Just 12 per cent of Americans say the pope has done an “excellent” (3 per cent) or “fair” (9 per cent) job with the scandal, a significant drop from April 2008, when the pope visited the United States. At that time, 39 per cent said he had done an excellent or good job addressing clergy sex abuse.

The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research centre for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, was released on Wednesday (April 7)and based on a national telephone survey April 1-5.

Recent news media reports have raised questions about whether Benedict mishandled predatory priests while he was an archbishop in Germany and head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Positive opinions of Benedict have fallen across the board, including the opinions of Catholics. Weekly Mass attendees remain the pope’s biggest supporters, but only 44 per cent say he has done a good job handling the scandal, down from 60 per cent in 2008.

Both mainline and evangelical Protestants are more critical of the pope than Catholics, with 72 per cent giving him fair or poor ratings. Religiously unaffiliated Americans prove to be the most critical: 86 per cent say the pope has handled the sex abuse scandal fairly or poorly.

The maximum margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus four percentage points.

Cardinal under scrutiny for reassigning abusive priest

By Helen Jung / The Oregonian

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) — A former archbishop in the US who’s now a high-ranking Vatican cardinal is facing scrutiny for his decision to reassign a known abusive priest in 1995 without informing parishioners of the priest’s past.

An attorney who represented priest sex-abuse victims in Oregon on April 2 released a 2006 deposition by Cardinal William J. Levada, who was archbishop of Portland from 1986-1995.

Levada is now prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that since 2001 has claimed jurisdiction over all abuse cases.

Much of the information, including Levada’s decision to reassign a priest known to have sexually abused teenage boys, has been reported in the past, through lawsuits and the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

But Portland attorney Erin Olson released the 293-page deposition after reading statements by Levada, who attacked The New York Times in defending the pope’s role in handling priests who sexually abused children.

Levada had criticized The Times for faulting Pope Benedict XVI — then Cardinal John Ratzinger — for the failure to defrock a Wisconsin priest who had sexually abused as many as 200 deaf children.

Levada’s defence “did not particularly surprise me,” Olson said, “considering he had made the decision to reinstate a priest who was a child abuser to a parish that had a school.”

Olson was referring to Rev. Joseph Baccellieri, who at first was removed from his position in 1992 when Levada learned of allegations of sex abuse of teenage boys from the 1970s. Levada reassigned him to another parish in 1995.

In the 2006 deposition, Levada defended the decision, saying the priest went through extensive therapy, and the pastor of the parish was charged with overseeing Baccellieri, as therapists recommended. In addition, he said in the deposition, “I have seen nothing to date that leads me to think my actions in this matter were not responsible and appropriate.”

He also defended not informing parishioners of the priest’s history.

“It might give people the implication that if they are being told this, that I am suspecting that he ... may be a risk to their children,” Levada said, according to the Associated Press, adding later that “I stand on that — on that judgment I made.”

No new claims surfaced against Baccellieri since those from the 1970s.

The deposition is one of several documents that were placed under seal until a July 2009 ruling by the US bankruptcy judge overseeing the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 filing.

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