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Pope Francis addresses journalists re: church sex scandals
13 Nov, 2021 22:52
Pope Francis took time over the weekend to praise the “mission” of journalists, and thank them for exposing the church’s sex scandals and helping to keep them from being “swept under the carpet.”
During a Saturday ceremony honoring two correspondents who have long covered the Vatican, the Pope directly approached the Catholic Church’s history with clerical sexual abuse scandals. He thanked the journalists for “what you tell us about what is wrong in the church” and for the “voice” given to abuse victims.
I am grateful to you for the effort you make to tell the truth.
Sexual abuse scandals within the church were first exposed on a widescale level by The Boston Globe in a series of stories in 2002, detailing alleged acts of sexual abuse as well as efforts to conceal those acts from the public.
Pope Francis has addressed sexual abuse crimes and allegations within the church in the past, saying last month he feels “shame” over the church’s “inability” to properly deal with the situation for so long. His comments came after the release of an independent report claiming there were over 200,000 cases of pedophilia and abuse within the church since 1950.
That was just in France! And there were far more than 200,000 cases; there were, in fact, 200,000 victims of child abuse, the majority of which were abused multiple times. Consequently, there were easily more than a million cases of paedophilia, just in France.
On Saturday, Pope Francis had more than just praise for journalists, as he also offered advice, urging modern-day reporters to experience life through more than a computer screen. To “explain the world” and make it “less obscure,” journalists must not be “fearful” of actual life and “escape the tyranny” of constantly being online.
“Not everything can be told through email, the phone, or a screen,” the Pope said, adding at another point that journalists need to look at those around them with “great awareness and also with more confidence.”
North Carolina diocese, priest named in sexual abuse lawsuit
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOVEMBER 19, 2021 5:45 PM
CHARLOTTE, N.C. A North Carolina diocese and a former priest have been named in a lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse involving a boy at an elementary school that spanned four years.
The lawsuit was filed in Mecklenburg County by attorneys representing the plaintiff, who is identified only as John Doe J.C. Among those named as defendants are the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools and the Rev. Francis P. Gillespie.
The Charlotte diocese said in a statement that Gillespie’s supervising religious order, the Jesuits, assigned him to ministry in the Diocese of Raleigh in 2002 and removed him from ministry on Sept. 29 while the allegation is investigated, which is standard procedure and should not imply guilt, WBTV reported.
An independent review of personnel and other files in 2019 found no record of allegations from anyone against Gillespie, according to the statement. According to the lawsuit, while the boy was a student at Our Lady of Assumption Elementary School in Charlotte, he became friendly with Gillespie, the parish priest of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus.
The lawsuit says Gillespie convinced the boy, who was 8 at the time, that he was special and allowed the boy to assist at Mass despite the fact that he wasn't an altar server.
The lawsuit accuses the priest of regularly sexually assaulting the boy in the church sacristy after gaining his trust. The suit also said Gillespie told the boy not to tell anyone.
The assaults began sometime in the 1996-1997 school year and continued through the 1999-2000 school year, according to the suit. “Plaintiff kept the abuse to himself initially because of Gillespie’s warning and feelings of helplessness and thereafter due to ongoing feelings of guilt, shame, and embarrassment,” according to the lawsuit.
Richard M. Serbin, the attorney representing John Doe J.C. said passage of the Safe Child Act has given his client an opportunity to seek justice, but the window of opportunity closes on Dec. 31.
Church cannot repair what it does not recognize,
Cardinal O'Malley says on abuse
Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
THURSDAY 18TH OF NOVEMBER 2021
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Gathering information and statistics on the sexual abuse of minors is an important tool for assessing established responses and for crafting recommendations to fix a failed system, said U.S. Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
"We cannot repair what we do not recognize. We cannot restore a broken trust if we do not address the heart of the matter. This requires honest investigation, independent inquiry and informed action," the cardinal said in a written message.
The message, published Nov. 18, was sent to a conference marking the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse -- held every Nov. 18 and promoted by the Council of Europe. The Nov. 18 conference in Rome was sponsored by the "Telefono Azzurro" abuse help line in Italy, whose founder and president is Ernesto Caffo, an Italian professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and a member of the papal commission.
For the majority -- 70% to 85% -- of known cases, the sexual exploitation and abuse of children is perpetrated by someone the child knows, that is, someone "in their circle of trust," said the council, which promotes human rights through international conventions.
And, "in 90% of the cases, the sexual violence acts are not reported to the police," it said on its website, coe.int.
The theme for the observance in 2021 focused on "Making the circle of trust truly safe for children."
The World Health Organization estimates that one in five women and one in 13 men experience sexual abuse before their 18th birthday and that at least 60% of child sexual abuse victims/survivors never disclose their abuse, Cardinal O'Malley said in his message.
"The most recent data that we have received on the scope of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is no less grim," he said, citing recent findings by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church in France. That report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests since 1950, and more than 100,000 others were abused by lay employees of church institutions.
"In Australia, 40% of the child sexual abuse that took place in the period under review of the Royal Commission of Inquiry occurred in an area related to the Catholic Church," the cardinal added.
One more statistic that was not revealed was the percentage of pervert priests who are/were gay. The church is not willing to go there yet. Consequently, they will never get to the heart of the problem.
"These are astounding statistics. But we cannot allow our reaction to them to obscure their purpose: To assess the measures taken by the church to treat this scourge and to make all useful recommendations for the transformation of a failed system based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis," he wrote.
The church must be open to learning from civil society and academia "in terms of scientific models of research for a more informed approach to our prevention strategies and protection policies, on the ground and online," he said.
The church must also work with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, he said, saying both the commission and Pope Francis believe these men and women "hold the key to helping us implement meaningful and effective policies and procedures."
Nov. 18 also marked the Catholic Church in Italy's first National Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors. Responding to a proposal by the commission based on a survivor's request, Pope Francis asked in 2016 that each episcopal conference around the world choose an appropriate day to hold a "day of prayer" for the victims/survivors of sexual abuse.
Pope Francis highlighted the new national day during his general audience Nov. 17, saying he hoped the initiative would be "an opportunity for reflection, awareness and prayer to support the paths of human and spiritual recovery of the victims."
He also emphasized the importance and "the inescapable duty of those who have educational responsibilities in the family, the parish, the school, in recreational and athletic environments, to protect and respect the adolescents and young people entrusted to them," since most abuse happens in these places.
Cardinal O'Malley also mentioned that, "in solidarity with the Holy Father's initiative," he would be "walking in silent communion of prayer with adult survivors of child sexual abuse, their advocates, brother bishops, faith leaders of many denominations and representatives of civil society" Nov. 18 in Baltimore, on the sidelines of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' fall assembly.
The "Sunrise Walk" is led by the Global Collaborative, a survivor-led network calling on the international community to establish an annual day of observance for child sexual exploitation and abuse prevention, healing and justice.
The cardinal said the different walk events being held across the United States Nov. 18 were aimed at raising awareness about "the role faith leaders can play in safeguarding children and advocating for survivor and family healing."
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Philly priest sexually abused teen on Margate trip, lawsuit says
Mensah M. Dean
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Nov 18, 2021
A Philadelphia priest sexually abused a teen at Cardinal Dougherty High School in the 1980s and also took the boy on a trip to Margate, where he served him alcohol and assaulted him, according to a lawsuit filed in Atlantic County Superior Court.
The Rev. Peter Foley sexually assaulted the boy, then 16, on a trip to the shore in 1981 and also at the school, where they worked together on student council, the suit says.
Foley, 83, reached by phone Wednesday at the church-run retirement facility in Upper Darby where he lives, said he never abused the teen — or anyone else — although he acknowledged he had given him alcohol.
“The allegations are false,” he said. “I did give the kid alcohol, but that’s as far as it went. He was 17 or 18.”
Asked why he would serve alcohol to a minor, Foley said: “We were at the shore.”
Foley, who was ordained in 1967, said he had long been “inactive” as a priest and referred further questions to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Ken Gavin, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said Foley was retired and had not served in active ministry for several years. He declined to comment on the lawsuit but said that when archdiocesan officials recently learned of the allegations against Foley, they referred the matter to law enforcement officials, who declined to press charges.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this month against the archdiocese, said priests had abused children at church-owned shore properties and elsewhere for decades and that such conduct was “well known” to the archdiocese. It cited a 2005 grand jury report that accused the archdiocese of allowing hundreds of sexual assaults against children to go unpunished and shielding the perpetrators by moving them from parish to parish. Such sexual abuse by Catholic priests, the suit said, was “widespread ... around the world.”
The plaintiff in the case, a Pennsylvania man who is now 57, is identified in the lawsuit only by his initials. The suit says the abuse he suffered was “a preventable hazard” that the archdiocese had failed to address.
Lawyers for the man said they filed the suit in New Jersey because Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for civil actions in connection with the priest’s conduct had expired.
In June of this year, the suit says, the archdiocese acknowledged the priest’s “misconduct” after an investigation and imposed restrictions on his clerical work. But it faulted the church for waiting so long to act.
In his long tenure in the archdiocese, Foley served as pastor of St. Alphonsus in Maple Glen, St. Justin Martyr in Narberth and Blessed Virgin Mary in Darby. He was assistant pastor at St. Francis of Assisi in Norristown, St. Philip Neri in Lafayette Hill and St. Martin of Tours in New Hope. He also served as resident priest at St. Jude in Chalfont, was parochial vicar at St. Katherine of Siena in Wayne and St. Christopher in Philadelphia, and he spent more than a decade as a chaplain at LaSalle College High school, where he served from 1976 to 1987.
The suit, filed by the Harrisburg law firm Andreozzi & Foote, accuses the archdiocese of negligence, recklessness and malice in its hiring and supervision of Foley and for retaining him after learning of his alleged wrongdoing.
Foley’s actions caused the victim years of suffering and emotional distress, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
One of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Nathaniel L. Foote, dismissed the priest’s denial of the assault. He said the abuse took place at a beach house shortly after the school year ended, that the victim had a vivid recollection of the assault — and that its toll had lingered.
“He’s struggled with this for many, many years before he felt he was in a place to talk about it,” Foote said. “But now he really wants recognition from the archdiocese and Father Foley that this happened.”
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