Will Insiders Change the Catholic Church



I just finished reading the most comprehensive review of the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Mostly is results from interviews with the person who knows more about it than anyone, Sean O'Malley, a Cardinal who has been assigned to deal with it around the world.

O'Malley explained Bishops are largely independent operators and things are handled differently in different dioceses. There are a few Bishops that refuse to handle the crisis in a way the helps resolve it. Several Bishops, for example have released names of priests suspected of being abusers. Some, like Tim Dollan of the New York Diocese, refuses to do so.

Within the Vatican, a large part of the bureaucracy still thinks their main mission is protecting the clergy and themselves. They think abuse is a U.S. problem and is the problem of isolated diocese. By thinking in this was they have decided it is not an important problem for the world Catholic Church. One of O'Malley's frustrations has been to keep the Pope of and Vatican interested in the problem.

O'Malley agreed U.S. and European Catholics think the problem is urgent and needs a forceful and united effort. The Vatican does not see it in the same urgent way.

In just a week the Pope's highly hyped confab of Cardinals will begin their conference which was called to solve the problem. I have predicted nothing important will be done.

Cardinal O'Malley, who knows far more about this than I do, seems to agree we should not expect to much from the conference.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/sean-omalley-pope-francis-catholic-church-sex-abuse/582658/?utm_medium=offsite&utm_source=yahoo&utm_campaign=yahoo-non-hosted&yptr=yahoo

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