The U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI might have some pedophile priests in Oregon alarmed this week, as his open acknowledgment of problems surrounding priest sex abuse were sound and rang of coming change; possibly big change. In fact, reports suggest that the pope might actually be close to authorizing a change in canon law that would explicitly bar sexual abusers from the priesthood.
Canon law is the term used for the internal ecclesiastical law which governs various churches, the Roman Catholic Church in this case, according to Wikipedia.
This week the head of all Catholics worldwide, bluntly addressed the sex scandal that has divided the church and left countless sex abuse victims in its wake struggling for recovery.
In Oregon, survivors like Bill Crane of the advocacy group SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they are ridiculed by the church and made out to be "problematic people" who wish to bring "harm" to the church when in fact, their lives are a constant struggle, many ending in suicide.
The New York Times says that even before the pope's plane touched down on the ground Tuesday for his first official visit to the United States, he said he was "deeply ashamed" by the actions of pedophile priests.
"His comments aboard his plane, in answer to a written question submitted by a reporter and selected by the Vatican, appeared to soothe many Catholics but left others demanding more action than words."
The latter part of that statement from the Times would certainly be true in Portland, where Crane and others saw a major victory in 2007 against the church over abuse allegations (see: Oregon Sex Abuse Victims in Catholic Church Scandal Awarded Over $50 Million - VIDEO), but failed to see the court ordered release of church records for over a year. He and others, like Father John Shuster of Washington state, believe the records would shed light on other pedophile priest cases thus far missed.
This week, the Portland Archdiocese released records for the first time. But Crane says it is a sham, a card in their hand, that they saved for damage control at this specific time of the pope's visit.
He says it is a calculated and cunning move by Arch Bishop Joseph Vlazny.
"Vlazny's public relations team and defense lawyers must be chuckling at how clever they are in releasing, after a years' worth of delay, some clergy sex abuse documents on a day when public attention is widely focused on the pope. This is textbook damage control maneuvering by a shrewd monarch who continues to minimize the crisis and the cover up."
Crane says the release of some of these documents proves that Archbishop Vlazny knew the extent of abusive priests in Portland, Oregon upon taking over the diocese in 1997, and in fact kept abusive priests in ministry.
"Priests like Father Baccilerri were not removed until lawsuits surfaced against the archdiocese. SNAP would also like to point out that Archbishop Vlazny lied when audits of documents relating to abusive priests was conducted in 2003, the archdiocese communicated that there were only 37 abusive priests; that number rose to 97 when documents were exposed during the bankruptcy."
Crane says SNAP is devoted to bringing eventual closure to many more sex abuse cases and he says the church has done nothing for victims but abuse them, and then complicate the process of recovery by denouncing the victims, not the offending priests, from the pulpit.
"Vlazny has continued in cover up this scandal and has not been forth coming in exposing these horrific sex crimes committed by priests in the Portland Archdiocese."
That is a harsh charge echoed by many, Crane says.
"It is also sad to note that there are no advocates among the clergy for victims of clergy sexual abuse. We hope that the Pope while in America will force change with bishops to promote long term healing to victims. In Portland all victims have gotten is empty ill-willed promises."
As it stands now, a section in the church’s Code of Canon law does say that a man cannot be ordained a priest, or remain a priest, if he has committed acts like homicide, self-mutilation, attempted suicide or procuring an abortion.
But nothing says they can't be a pedophile priest. Simply amazing.
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