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Pope Francis and prelates from around the world attend a penitential liturgy during a meeting on the protection of minors in the church at the Vatican in this Feb. 23, 2019, file photo. (CNS photo/Evandro Inetti, pool)
Dec. 20, 2019
Catholic San FranciscoThe Vatican is being hit with a “tsunami” of new clergy abuse claims, many from countries that had not previously sent such cases to Rome, the Associated Press reported.
Reporting from Vatican City Dec. 20, AP correspondent Nicole Winfield said the new influx of 1,000 case suggests “that the worst may be yet to come in a crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church.”
The AP said the Vatican’s doctrinal office is “overwhelmed, struggling with a skeleton staff that hasn’t grown at pace to meet the four-fold increase in the number of cases arriving in 2019 compared to a decade ago.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been reviewing all cases of alleged clergy abuse since the Vatican assumed responsibility two decades ago.
The Vatican allowed an AP photographer and video journalists into the CDF’s inner office. The AP team interviewed Msgr.John Kennedy, the head of the congregation’s discipline section, which processes the cases.
“I know cloning is against Catholic teaching, but if I could actually clone my officials and have them work three shifts a day or work seven days a week,” they might make the necessary headway, the AP quoted Msgr. Kennedy as saying.
“We’re effectively seeing a tsunami of cases at the moment, particularly from countries where we never heard from (before),” Kennedy said, according to the article.
Msgr. Kennedy also spoke about the impact of the crisis on victims' families.
“I suppose if I weren’t a priest and if I had a child who were abused, I’d probably stop going to Mass,” he said, according to the article, adding that in his native Ireland the church lost its credibility over the abuse scandal.
“I’d probably stop having anything to do with the church because I’d say, ’Well, if you can’t look after children, well, why should I believe you?”
He said the Vatican is committed to justice in processing the claims.
“It’s not about winning people back, because faith is something that is very personal,” he said, according to the article. “But at least we give people the opportunity to say, ‘Well, maybe give the church a second chance to hear the message.’”
In a decision published Dec. 17 Pope Francis abolished the obligation of secrecy for abuse victims during Vatican trials and processes.