Pope Francis greets Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, during a private meeting Oct. 9, 2017, at the Vatican. (CNS/L’Osservatore Romano)
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was “eager for an audience” with Pope Francis to gain his support for the bishops’ plan to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
In an Aug. 27 statement, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston also said that the questions raised by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former nuncio to the United States, in a letter published by two Catholic media outlets “deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence.”
“Without those answers, innocent men may be tainted by false accusations and the guilty may be left to repeat the sins of the past,” the cardinal said.
In his 11-page letter, published Aug. 26, Archbishop Vigano accused church officials, including Pope Francis, of failing to act on accusations of abuse of conscience and power by now-Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick. Archbishop Vigano claimed he told Pope Francis about Cardinal McCarrick in 2013.
Archbishop Vigano, who served as nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016, wrote that he was compelled to write his knowledge of Archbishop McCarrick’s misdeeds because “corruption has reached the very top of the church’s hierarchy.”
In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo reiterated an Aug. 16 call for an apostolic visitation, working with a national lay commission granted independent authority, to investigate the “many questions surround Archbishop McCarrick.”
He also said he convened members of the USCCB Executive Committee Aug. 26 and that they “reaffirmed the call for a prompt and thorough examination into how the grave moral failings of a brother bishop could have been tolerated for so long and proven no impediment to his advancement.”
The plan earlier outlined by Cardinal DiNardo also called for detailed proposals to make reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops easier and improve procedures for resolving complaints against bishops.
Cardinal DiNardo again apologized to abuse survivors and their families. “You are no longer alone,” he said.
The statement explained how since 2002, professionally trained staff have worked with the U.S. church to support survivors and prevent future abuse. He pointed to the steps the church has put in place in response to abuse including the zero-tolerance policy regarding clergy abuse: safe environment training in diocesan offices, parishes and schools, background checks for church workers and volunteers working around children, victim assistance coordinators, prompt reporting to civil authorities and diocesan lay review boards.
“In other ways, we have failed you. This is especially true for adults being sexually harassed by those in positions of power, and for any abuse or harassment perpetuated by a bishop,” Cardinal DiNardo said.
“We will do better. The more she is buffeted by storms, the more I am reminded that the church’s firm foundation is Jesus Christ. The failures of men cannot diminish the light of the Gospel.”
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All Catholic churches should be more mindful of the newspapers placed in the back of churches, as some have deliberately attempted to undermine Pope Francis, and actually promote radical and hateful ideals instead of Catholic doctrine. Church members who have read these newspapers – now and in the past – and acknowledge that the content is inappropriate needs to push their pastors and parish boards for their removal, as well as contacting USCCB and insisting they evaluate the last two years of rhetoric in the newspapers and online, and demand all U.S. churches not to subscribe and promote them any longer. This is a good place to start, and as is evident these days, you can’t believe everything you read. Do your research!
The silence is deafening. The explosion continues to grow, and yet there is no positive responses coming from Rome or the Bishops. I feel anger, depression, and totally gutted. I am like a fish that has been caught, gutted and scaled before being cooked. The whole template of the church has been broken! I know there are good Bishops and Priests, but we need to hear their voices, and they need to hear our voices who have been faithful followers. Jesus weeps tears of blood from the Cross! He cries out for reform, and for the guilty to step forward and admit their sins and face their judgement.
Please, your sheep are scattering and their shepherds are drunk on their own power and are within a vacuum. To who may we trust, but Jesus. Please Jesus send our Your Spirit and reform the Church!