From the editor's desk
The Tablet

18 April 2018

The apologies that Pope Francis now needs to make

Why the Pope's initial response to the Barros case was a classic demonstration of clericalism at its arrogant worst

Pope Francis has at last acknowledged that he made “serious mistakes” in his handling of the case of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile. He has expressed his “pain and shame” at the suffering of victims of child abuse in this case, whom he has said were “crucified” by it. He had swept aside their complaints as “calumny”, virtually calling them liars.

It is difficult to overstate how dreadful this episode is. Had he been the head of a large international agency, particularly one with child protection responsibilities, the Pope would have had to resign. Instead, he has to put his remorse and regret to good use, to repair the damage.
He has started well. Everybody makes mistakes and lives in need of God’s mercy. The Pope’s public confession and humiliation is itself a lesson in the school of holiness he writes about so adroitly in his apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate. He appears at last to have got to the truth of the matter after a swift yet thorough investigation by Archbishop Scicluna. Most importantly, he will apologise in person to the victims whose complaints he had dismissed. And by calling the bishops of Chile to Rome he has shown a serious intent to address the underlying problems. The suspicion remains that there is something rotten in the Church in Chile, and that those who service the Pope with information and advice have conspicuously failed in their duty.
The Pope’s initial response to the allegations against Bishop Barros, which he magnified by his defiant attitude on arrival in Chile in January, was a classic demonstration of clericalism – the underlying problem in the Barros case. The irony is that the Pope is also its severest critic in every other context. The obstructive response in the Vatican to clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Church shows that clericalism is still the dominant ideology in those quarters.
The Barros case shows once again that everyone who says they have been sexually abused must be listened to. Abuse is a crime as well as a sin, and cases must be referred to the state’s child protection agencies and the police. It is understood that guidelines centred on the needs of victims and survivors of clerical sexual abuse have been drawn up in the Vatican to be applied by national bishops’ conferences globally, but the process has met internal resistance.
What is lacking in the Church is a charter of rights for the laity, a Magna Carta which constrains the monarchical powers of popes and bishops and grants an absolute right to due process to every last Catholic, however humble. Without that, the Catholic Church remains stuck in the early Middle Ages, a clericalised feudal tyranny.
Meanwhile Pope Francis has a fuller list of apologies to make – not least to members or former members of the Vatican’s own child abuse commission – and reprimands to issue, including to several senior Chilean bishops and other prelates, who, by giving him bad advice, multiplied his problems. Ensuring that good comes out of this affair must be given the highest priority. Otherwise the sin is compounded.