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Boston Globe
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
A new pope confronts his church's abuse scandal amid praise and scrutiny
Leo has not made any public statements about the sexual abuse crisis, though in past interviews he disavowed 'cover-up and secrecy' and emphasized assistance for victims. One possible sign of an early focus on the issue came Wednesday, when the pope met with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, a retired leader of the Boston Archdiocese who heads the Vatican's commission on the abuse of minors. Advertisement Experts and those who have worked with Leo during his lengthy tenure as priest, missionary, bishop, and leader of an international order express confidence that he has the characteristics to accelerate progress -- excellent listening skills, a canon law degree, experience suppressing an abusive Catholic movement in Peru. Advertisement Yet his record during those years, when he was known as Father Robert Prevost, has already faced scrutiny from some survivor groups. They say they are troubled by his ascent to the apex of the church, calling his oversight of two cases involving accused priests problematic. In March, the US-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, sent a complaint to the Vatican calling for investigations into both cases: an accusation that a quarter-century ago, Prevost approved the relocation of an abuser to a Chicago friary located near a parish elementary school; and a 2023 claim by three sisters in Peru who say that Prevost, at that point a bishop for the Diocese of Chiclayo, insufficiently investigated their allegations of sexual abuse by two priests years earlier. In neither case did the alleged abuse occur under Prevost's watch. Still, SNAP president Shaun Dougherty said he felt 'flabbergasted' last week when Prevost emerged as Pope Leo XIV on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. The cardinals' selection of Prevost was 'tone deaf' as the church continues to grapple with the decades-long crisis, Dougherty said. Others have a different assessment, saying abuse in the church has been so widespread that the conclave would have struggled to choose a pontiff whose career was untouched by the fallout. Activists of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference in Rome in March. From left were Sarah Pearson, Peter Isely, and president Shaun Dougherty. Andrew Medichini/Associated Press 'For me, the bigger story is what he does moving forward,' said Brian Clites, an expert at Case Western Reserve University on clergy sexual abuse. The allegations 'are serious,' he said, 'but they're so common that I cannot imagine many people who would have been elected pope who would not have had similar profiles.' Advertisement And in a statement posted last week on X, the president of the Peru Survivors Network said he had met with Prevost in January and praised the new pope's role in helping to dismantle Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. The Peru-based movement, a lay community founded to recruit 'soldiers for God,' was dissolved early this year after a Vatican investigation uncovered sexual and spiritual abuses. 'He listened with attention to my ideas and showed his total agreement and support for my fight against physical, psychological, spiritual, and sexual violence in the Catholic Church,' Jose Enrique Escardó Steck wrote of their conversation. The church's reckoning became far more visible under Francis, who met several times with survivors and in 2014 created a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Five years later, he convened an unprecedented summit on clerical sexual abuse, where he called for an 'all-out battle' to end it. Francis followed that with a sweeping law to hold clerics accountable, requiring church officials to report accusations of abuse or cover-ups to their superiors. (The law does not require civil authorities to be contacted.) Even so, Francis was criticized for slow-walking certain cases, and survivors and their advocates saw many of his moves as toothless. Some commission members quit in protest, saying the body lacked independence and transparency, a charge the group itself echoed in a report last year. Though thousands of priests have been disciplined by the Holy See and abuse cases keep surfacing, critics say the investigative process remains cloaked, the result of an entrenched hierarchy averse to openness and change. Advertisement Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit priest who is considered one of the church's foremost authorities on safeguarding children from sexual abuse, quit the commission out of frustration in 2023. But he said he has seen 'a positive dynamic' worldwide over the past two to three years and is looking for the new pope to build on it. Zollner hopes Leo will invite victims to Rome -- not only so he can hear directly from them, but also so he can involve them in 'rethinking procedures in the church and in promoting safeguarding.' As a native of the United States, where the scandal exploded in Boston in 2002, Leo would have significant familiarity with the problem and what is now the US church's 'zero tolerance' policy. Across the country, dioceses and other Catholic entities have since reported more than 16,200 credible allegations of abuse made by minors, as detailed in a report early this year by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. But Leo's many years in Peru may give him a broader perspective -- one that grasps the scope of abuse in countries from Ireland to Australia to the Philippines. Some Catholics around the world continue to believe 'this is a decadent American problem,' said Stephen White, who leads Catholic University's response to the abuse crisis. 'I think he will be very much disabused of that idea.' Clites said Leo, like Francis, seems to embrace a liberation-theology-style approach that gives a 'preferential option' for the poor. Whether he will extend the same to survivors of abuse, as SNAP and other groups have demanded, is unclear. 'The biggest thing a pope could do that we haven't seen from the past few popes would be to direct dioceses around the world to be more transparent. We really have no idea about the rates and cases of abuse outside of the most developed countries,' Clites said. He added: 'It's not just about implementing policies and the speech acts that Francis did a good job at.' Advertisement
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Historic moment': Boston Archbishop leads mass ahead of flight to Rome for Pope Francis' funeral
Boston Archbishop Richard Henning led a mass paying tribute to the late Pope Francis ahead of his flight to Rome for Saturday's funeral. The mass at St. Theresa's Parish in West Roxbury on Wednesday was the first of three masses announced by the Boston Archdiocese in the wake of the Argentinian pontiff's death. Clergy and community members said they feel connected to the 88-year-old and what he stood for. Francis is being remembered for championing the causes of the less fortunate and adopting a more progressive tone for Catholics around the world. 'There's been a real beauty to the compassion and the solidarity that he has lived and that he has proclaimed and the way he gives that voice to the voiceless,' said Archbishop Henning. Henning said he's traveling to Rome partly because he wants to bring the people of Boston with him. 'I do know this is a historic moment. This holy father has certainly had an enormous effect on the church and the world,' said Henning. Tens of thousands of people are expected to pass through St. Peter's Basilica in the coming days to pay their final respects. The Vatican is considering extending the viewing hours even longer due to the high turnout. 'He wasn't looking for a lot of credit. He was a really humble priest. We're gunna miss him,' said Boston resident Nancy Geourntas. The second mass held by the Boston Archdiocese is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lowell. The third will begin at 7:00 p.m. Friday at St. James Church in Stoughton. The funeral for Pope Francis has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter's Square. It will be attended by world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Boston Globe
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
How Pope Francis did — and didn't — address the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis
Send questions or suggestions to the Starting Point team at . If you'd like the newsletter sent to your inbox, . TODAY'S STARTING POINT Pope Francis, who died yesterday at 88, never visited Boston. But he was a presence in the city throughout his 12-year papacy in part because of how he approached the problem of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy — a crisis that rocked the Boston Archdiocese. In some ways, Francis was an innovator. He apologized to victims and enacted policies meant to catch abusive priests. Yet his limited reforms disappointed many, and he sometimes doubted victims' stories or sided with the accused. Advertisement Francis's death has left people who hold both perspectives mourning. Some who think he made progress on clerical abuse note that the next pope may not continue it. And those who think he did too little lament his papacy as a missed opportunity to do victims justice. Today's newsletter explains. Beyond his predecessors In March 2013, one day before Francis became pope, James Carroll, a former priest and columnist for this newspaper, compared the church's sex abuse crisis to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. The crisis, he wrote, was ' Advertisement Francis wasn't the first pope to act on those revelations. In 2002, John Paul II accepted the resignation of Bernard Law, the Boston archbishop who failed to oust priests he knew were abusing children. Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI, defrocked Yet Francis, with his liberal-reformist reputation, seemed to promise tougher action. In some ways, he delivered. He convened a first-of-its-kind summit during which bishops Many remembrances of Francis have focused on his empathy — for migrants, Palestinians, people of other faiths, and more. At times he seemed to approach abuse victims in the same spirit. During a 2018 visit to Chile, Francis 'It sounds trivial to say, but his heart was in the right place,' said Francis X. Clooney, a Jesuit priest and professor at Harvard Divinity School who likened the pope's reforms on sex abuse — though imperfect — to his other efforts to make the clergy more welcoming, more diverse, and less doctrinaire. 'And he was also trying to change the church to get the church's heart in the right place.' Advertisement Not enough, advocates say Francis's reforms weren't sufficiently expansive or enforced, argues Sarah Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. Francis required clergy to report abuse — but There's also Francis's own history. While serving in Argentina as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the future pope commissioned a report that concluded Like Francis's Who's next? Francis 'I don't think there's any guarantee that the next pope is going to be exactly in the line of Francis, or more progressive than Francis, or do the things Francis didn't,' said Clooney, of Harvard. Advertisement Pearson wants to ensure they do. She and other victims' advocates from SNAP will travel to Rome today to urge cardinals to pick someone who will prioritize accountability for abusers. SNAP has launched When I asked what her goal was, Pearson told me about Beatriz Varela, an Argentine mother who alleged that a local priest abused her son in 2002. When Varela went to confront Cardinal Bergoglio — the future Francis — she says his staff 'How did she feel when she first saw the news that this person, whose office she had been escorted out of by security, was now the head of the Catholic Church?' Pearson said. 'In a month or so, most likely, there's going to be another pope. And what we want to avoid is somebody else reading the news of who that person is and feeling the same way that that mother felt.' More on Francis: Church leaders across New England praised his humility. Francis 'constantly The death of the first Latin American pope The pope's last public appearance was in St. Peter's Square for Easter. Francis died from a stroke and heart failure less than a day 🧩 7 Across: | ☀️ 72° POINTS OF INTEREST Runners on Heartbreak Hill yesterday. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Boston Marathon: 'The most fun I've had at Boston': The weather delivered, and so did the crowds. Solid debut: Jess McClain, 33, finished as the fastest American woman Going out on top: Des Linden has run 24 marathons, half of them in Boston. She says Like you were there: See a man crawling across the finish line, a Princess Leia lookalike, and And check out the signs Boston and New England Karen Read re-run: Opening statements start today in her second trial. Allegations that the police framed Read for her boyfriend's death In mourning: Rhode Island Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, an old-school politician who wielded power for decades, died at 76. His passing Inaccessible: Some MBTA escalators Flagg down: Cooper Flagg, from Maine, will enter the NBA draft after just one season at Duke. He's favored to be the No. 1 overall pick. ( Trump administration Pointing down: US stocks fell after Trump 'Lawlessness': As Trump moves to detain and deport foreign students, some of his harshest critics The price of principle: A nonprofit that tutors Boston students will forego a $250,000 federal grant Cash poor: Someone stole Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's bag at a DC restaurant with her keys, makeup, passport, and $3,000 in cash inside. ( The Nation Antitrust: The Justice Department wants a judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser after he ruled last year that the company has an illegal monopoly in online search. ( Goose, gander: A jury convicted Nadine Menendez, former Senator Bob Menendez's wife, of helping him collect bribes. ( BESIDE THE POINT By Teresa Hanafin, Globe Staff 🗓️ Free things to do: A sing-along with budding musicians at the JFK Library, GBH's Nova Science Trivia Night, poetry readings in Cambridge, 🌍 Happy Earth Day: A striking new visualization by a climate scientist looks like a flower in bloom, but actually tells an alarming story about global warming. ( 🦎 Better grease the Hancock Tower: In a popular comic book series, Godzilla visits various US cities and mayhem ensues. Advertisement 🐶 😛 Dog face: A hot trend on Reddit and TikTok is to ask AI — specifically ChatGPT — to imagine your dog as a human. The results are ... unnerving. ( ♻️ Miss Conduct: Letter-writer suspects that a neighbor is mistakenly putting diapers in the recycling bin. 🏊🏽♀️ Deep end: The Black Swimmers Alliance in St. Louis encourages Black parents to take swimming lessons alongside their kids so the whole family can stay safe. ( 💌 Love Letters podcast: Meredith and a reader discuss perimenopause, menopause, and how Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday. Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at
