Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?
The Atlantic
A few years after Seán O’Malley took over the Archdiocese of Boston in 2003, at the peak of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis in America, he led novenas of penance at nine of the city’s most affected parishes. At each church he visited, he lay facedown on the floor before the altar, begging for forgiveness. This is how O’Malley has spent his life in ministry: cleaning up after pedophile priests and their apologists, and serving as the Catholic Church’s public face of repentance and reform.
Possibly more than
any other cleric on Earth, O’Malley understands how deeply the Church’s
errors on sexual abuse have damaged its mission and reputation. Today,
he is one of Pope Francis’s closest advisers, the only American on a
small committee of cardinals who meet regularly at the Vatican. He runs
the pope’s special commission on the protection of minors. And he is a
member of the influential Vatican office responsible for preserving and
defending Catholic doctrine. He believes that the Church has changed,
can change, and will change. But as the world’s top bishops prepare to
meet later this month for an unprecedented summit on sexual abuse at the
Vatican, O’Malley has found himself frustrated, unable to push reforms
through at the top.The Atlantic
A few years after Seán O’Malley took over the Archdiocese of Boston in 2003, at the peak of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis in America, he led novenas of penance at nine of the city’s most affected parishes. At each church he visited, he lay facedown on the floor before the altar, begging for forgiveness. This is how O’Malley has spent his life in ministry: cleaning up after pedophile priests and their apologists, and serving as the Catholic Church’s public face of repentance and reform.
An excellent historical look at Cardinal Sean O'Malley and sexual abuse crisis. It raises the question can the Hierarchy make the needed organizational changes that are needed to move the Church forward.
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