Fr. Z's Blog

At the American Conservative see Rod Dreher’s piece “Pope Francis & Child Abusers”. Dreher references Doughery’s “blockbuster” column at This Week.

The Catholic Church has long been plagued by sickening scandals involving priests abusing children. And there is reportedly another scandal coming — this one of the pope’s own making.

Two people with direct ties to the Vatican tell me that Pope Francis, following the advice of his clubby group of allies in the curia, is pressing to undo the reforms that were instituted by his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI in handling the cases of abuser priests. Francis is pushing ahead with this plan even though the curial officials and cardinals who favor it have already brought more scandal to his papacy by urging him toward lenient treatment of abusers.

In 2001, the Vatican instituted a massive reform in how it handled the cases of priests who abused children. The power to deal with these cases was taken away from the Congregation of the Clergy and the Roman Rota (the Vatican’s Court), and placed in the office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Subsequently, the volume and speed with which the Catholic Church defrocked abuser priests went up. This was Pope Benedict’s legacy of trying to confront “the filth” in the Church.

Recently, Pope Francis had the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, request an opinion from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, led by Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, regarding the possibility of transferring competence to deal with abuser priests from the CDF back to Clergy and the Rota. Coccopalmerio’s office responded with a positive answer.

And although it was not mentioned in media reports, Pope Francis also discussed this “reform of the reform” on child abuse when he met with his special advisory group, the Council of Cardinals, in mid-December, an official with direct knowledge of the meeting told me. The press office of the Vatican did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.

[…]

So why revert?

Perhaps because the CDF has taken a tough, rules-based approach to the issue of child abuse, which clashes with the more personal autocratic style of this pope. Or perhaps because reforming the reform would reward his allies, and humiliate an antagonist.

Rumors of this reform have been circulating in Rome for months. And not happily. Pope Francis and his cardinal allies have been known to interfere with CDF’s judgments on abuse cases. This intervention has become so endemic to the system that cases of priestly abuse in Rome are now known to have two sets of distinctions. The first is guilty or innocent. The second is “with cardinal friends” or “without cardinal friends.”

And indeed, Pope Francis is apparently pressing ahead with his reversion of abuse practices even though the cardinals who are favorable to this reform of reform have already brought him trouble because of their friends.

The Holy Father seems to be targeting the CDF for special treatment these days. The translation of competence in the matter of abusers from CDF to some other dicastery could be a sign that he intends to do even more to diminish the CDF.

Moreover, Dreher links Doughery’s piece to the case of the Chilean bishop relayed by the Fishwrap.  I wonder that he did not include the case of the Argentinian scandal.

Meanwhile, Ross Douthat tweeted out…

Read @michaelbd on what Pope Francis’s cold war with the CDF means for how Rome handles priestly sex abuse:https://t.co/wd1mQ3blrZ

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 3, 2017

At the same time that this is coming out Jesuit-run Amerika posted an AP story about Pope Francis as “zero-tolerance”.

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