More committees are not the answer to stop the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by clergy, said an Aug. 28 statement by the National Review Board, which is charged with addressing clerical sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church.

“What needs to happen is a genuine change in the church’s culture, specifically among the bishops themselves,” the board said. “This evil has resulted from a loss of moral leadership and an abuse of power that led to a culture of silence that enabled these incidents to occur.

“Intimidation, fear, and the misuse of authority created an environment that was taken advantage of by clerics, including bishops, causing harm to minors, seminarians, and those most vulnerable,” the NRB said. “The culture of silence enabled the abuse to go on virtually unchecked. Trust was betrayed for the victims/survivors of the abuse; the entire body of Christ was betrayed in turn by these crimes and the failure to act.”

The purpose of the NRB, established in 2002 as part of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, is to work collaboratively with the U.S. bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People in preventing the sexual abuse of minors in the United States by persons in the service of the church.

But even the charter that created the NRB is wanting, the board’s statement said.

“The members of the NRB have on numerous occasions pointed out the weaknesses in the charter given its deliberate ambiguity and its lack of inclusion of bishops. During the most recent revision process of the charter, many of the recommendations made by the NRB to strengthen the charter were not incorporated for a variety of reasons. These recommendations need to be reconsidered in light of the current situation, as well as the inclusion of bishops in the charter,” the NRB said.

“The National Review Board has for several years expressed its concern that bishops not become complacent in their response to sexual abuse by the clergy. The recent revelations make it clear that the problem is much deeper.”

The statement said, “The episcopacy needs to be held accountable for these past actions, and in the future, for being complicit, either directly or indirectly, in the sexual abuse of the vulnerable. Holding bishops accountable will require an independent review into the actions of the bishop when an allegation comes to light.”

Strong support for a radical reform of the Irish Catholic Church is disclosed in a survey by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), in the run-up to Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland.

The survey was conducted at four regional meetings held in July, on the ACP website in early August, in parishes, and with a number of groups from different parts of Ireland representing priests and people with age levels ranging from teenagers to elderly.

Participants were asked an open-ended question – “What do you want to say to Pope Francis about the Irish Church?” – and could give single or multiple responses.
A total of 1,396 participants contributed 2,288 submissions.

Regarding the role of women in the Church, the survey concluded that they are coming up against a “culture of misogyny” within the Church, which “needs to be recognised and erased.”

With regards to priesthood and vocations, the survey concluded that the Catholic Church in Ireland is “going to disappear unless Rome allows priests to marry and lifts the mandatory ban on the ordination of women to priesthood and diaconate. Firstly, married priests and, secondly, women priests.”

Respondents also felt that the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception is “ignored by the vast majority of Catholics” and described Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical prohibiting artificial contraception, as an “unwanted intrusion into the personal lives of Catholics.”

On the issue of sexual abuse, the survey concluded that “full disclosures should be made and apologies given.”

With regard to the LGBT community who feel “incredibly unwelcome by the Church,” the survey found that there is “huge support” for this issue “to be respectfully addressed, particularly but not exclusively among younger respondents.

“No effort must be spared” to prevent future cases of clerical sexual abuse and “to prevent the possibility of their being covered up,” Pope Francis said in a letter addressed “to the people of God.”

The letter was published after the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on decades of clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups in six dioceses. The report spoke of credible allegations against 301 priests in cases involving more than 1,000 children.

More than 140 theologians, educators and lay leaders have called for all U.S. bishops to submit their resignations to Pope Francis, much like Chile’s 34 bishops did in May after revelations of sexual abuse and corruption, as a public act of penance and a “willing abdication of earthly status.”

“Today, we call on the Catholic Bishops of the United States to prayerfully and genuinely consider submitting to Pope Francis their collective resignation as a public act of repentance and lamentation before God and God’s People,” said a statement, posted in English and Spanish on the Daily Theology blog on August 17.

“Only then might the wrenching work of healing begin,” it said.

The statement came in response to release of a grand jury report that detailed seven decades of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-up by church leaders in six dioceses in Pennsylvania, as well as allegations earlier this summer that former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, sexually abused two children and adult seminarians.

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