Francis ‘light years ahead’ of other popes in tackling abuse scandal, says pioneering journalist

 

Francis ‘light years ahead’ of other popes in tackling abuse scandal, says pioneering journalist

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times [Dublin, Ireland]

February 3, 2023

By Patsy McGarry

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An American journalist who was one of the first reporters in the world to expose the clerical child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church says Pope Francis “has gone far beyond his two predecessors in confronting” the issue.

Jason Berry (73), an author and documentary-maker who has a film showing at a Dublin venue on Saturday, said the current pope “has made his share of mistakes, not heeding Ireland’s survivor leader Marie Collins on genuine reform, and his failure initially to believe news reports about the scandals in Chile. But he did change, sacking a third of the Chilean hierarchy and getting to know survivors like Juan Carlos Cruz [a prominent international campaigner on the issue].”

Francis “is still on a learning curve, though he’s light years ahead of John Paul II’s scandalous denial and Benedicts’ failure to oust culpable bishops. After so much suffering caused by the church,…