Pope Francis invited the Commission to carry out their work their efforts to implement best practices to safeguard minors. He expressed support for the Memorare initiative, which aims to assist local Churches worldwide in training and strengthening the prevention and safeguarding capacities for children and vulnerable adults. The Memorare initiative, he added, “will create a network of solidarity with victims and those who promote their rights, especially where resources and experience are limited.”
The clerical sexual abuse scandals have created “a button with which anyone can ostracize anyone else, leaving it to history to sort out justified accusations from the unjustified, and to God to compensate the innocent and punish the guilty.” For that reason, Melloni suggests, the next conclave “will have to protect the elected person from the risk of being delegitimized by an accusation designed to divide cardinals who challenge the election of an unworthy person from those who instead consider the election valid, at least for the presumption of innocence.” Lengthening the conclave, he argues, “would guarantee time for conversation and discussion within the college, which is more necessary than ever to reach a more shared electoral process and to allow candidates time to withdraw, in the well-founded expectation that someone could use true or even plausible information against them.”
Psychiatrists and psychologists pointed out that the emotional immaturity of certain priests was a more serious problem than we thought. Clericalism was then overwhelmingly designated as the heart of the problem, but the root of the problem was perhaps to be found elsewhere. Emotionally immature priests “are incapable of dealing with the fundamental ambivalence of the links they maintain with their faithful". Immaturity in adults can sometimes be difficult to detect, to the extent that some immature people can appear perfectly adult and even brilliant in their way of thinking, writing or, in the case of priests, their preaching. In 2024, the blind spot about the emotional and sexual immaturity of certain priests necessarily continues to give rise to serious instances of abuse.
"We can't ever reject somebody, where we take the worst thing they've done and say they aren't part of the human family anymore," Cardinal Cupich said. "And we can't ignore the pain and suffering of those who have been injured. They're family too." A former prosecutor said, "The focus is almost exclusively on punishment and controlling people who are incarcerated. There is very little attention given to caring for the person. We don't have a healing system." He now believes the system needs to be transformed, especially in how it treats people who are often suffering from trauma, generational poverty and/or mental illness.
During our conversation the following point jumped out at me, and continues to remain with me, the bisholp said, “Most Catholics are more influenced by the culture than the Gospel.” I then asked him, “Would you say that about your brother bishops as well?” Without hesitation, he replied, “Absolutely!” Pope Francis has often called this sad reality the “culture of indifference” where solid commitment to nonviolently protecting and enhancing the life and dignity of all human beings – especially the vulnerable and poor – is of little concern. He recently said that in societies often polluted by a culture of indifference and of waste, “as believers, we are called to go against the tide with a culture of tenderness, that is, of caring for others as God has cared for us: for me, for you, for each one of us.”
"Previous generations of priests, my generation, no one talked about it. You just didn’t talk about sexuality,” said Fichter, who was ordained in 2000. Plante, who has conducted psychological screenings for about 1,000 seminary candidates over the last three decades, agreed that the Catholic Church has been more mindful of the “whole humanity” of candidates in recent years. “In the old days, if there were any issues about sexuality or sexual expression, they were told to take a cold shower and pray about it,” said Plante. “Our culture and understanding of human behavior has evolved quite a bit over the past number of decades, not only as it relates to seminarians in the church, but just in general.”
The motivation of various “abuse reporting” bills is laudatory. All people of good will want to ensure the safety of children and protect them from abuse, but there is no evidence that forcing priests to disclose cases of abuse learned from the confessional would have prevented a single case of child abuse. On the other hand, bills requiring priests to reveal what is said to them in a purely religious act of Confession will do little more than deny people the free exercise of their religion, subsequently denying victims a crucial opportunity to receive help and healing.
The idea is to prevent clergy members in positions of authority from preying on often vulnerable congregants who are turning to faith leaders for emotional, mental or even physical guidance. Consent is not a defense for clergy members accused of sexual battery, the legislation says, and it establishes misdemeanor and felony charges for adult sexual abuse by clergy. “If you have someone who is acting as a voice of God, and is representing themselves in a place of power in a church or temple as being a conduit or vessel through which God’s voice speaks, that’s not really consent,” he continued. “You can’t consent to an intimate relationship under those circumstances.”
In an interview for a book published in October, Pope Francis pushed back against the idea that changes to Church practice such as introducing female deacons or optional priestly celibacy would help boost vocations. Asked about women’s ordination bringing “more people closer to the Church” and optional priestly celibacy helping with priest shortages, Pope Francis said he does not share these views. “Lutherans ordain women, but still few people go to church,” Pope Francis said. “Their priests can marry, but despite that, they can’t grow the number of ministers. The problem is cultural. We should not be naive and think that programmatic changes will bring us the solution.”
When I meet people who are becoming Catholic now, “at a time like this,” the fact that struggles are present inside the church does not seem to especially bother them. They’re used to struggle and uncertainty, they don’t expect a simple refuge, and they recognize that any space of real spiritual power — which the Catholic Church still is, I promise — will inevitably be a zone of contestation as well. As it has been from the beginning, from failed and feckless popes all the way back to failed and even treacherous disciples. If the story that Christians hold up for the world a few days hence is really the greatest and most important ever told, then Christianity will come through this crisis as it has come through past ones. And whether you’re a liberal, a conservative or just a believer trying to stay out of the crossfire, you should feel confident that what happens inside Roman Catholic Christianity will show some of those ways through.
After first survey findings were published last year, researchers conducted a deeper analysis of the data, which was published in November. Answers to questions about how priests are doing on a personal level suggest that, in that sense, they are “thriving.” Meanwhile, they balk when asked about the diocese. “If you ask them about their diocese, about their bishop, they say, ‘Don’t talk to me.’ They don’t want to go there. That’s miserable. So institutionally they’re kind of cynical,” he said. “At the same time, they’re very hopeful and very committed when it comes to personal vocation.”
This anniversary should not pass without mentioning Dulles's critique of the Dallas Charter (Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People) approved by the American bishops in 2002 as a way of dealing with allegations of priestly sexual abuse. From the beginning, Dulles recognized the significant theological problems with the charter—problems that, unfortunately, have remained unaddressed in the years since his death. Early on, the cardinal warned American bishops that the charter’s norms were so harsh as to establish an “adversarial relationship” between the episcopacy and the presbyterate. His warnings have proved prophetic. Dulles saw immediately that the implementation of the charter strained both natural justice and Catholic theology. Accusations of priestly abuse were deemed credible simply if they were not entirely groundless, the very definition of abuse appeared ambiguous, proper remuneration for accused priests was unresolved, and there were persistent problems with the process for returning priests to public ministry. Dulles argued that, with their charter, the bishops undermined priestly morale and struck a blow against the Church as an institution in which justice reigns. The recent National Study of Catholic Priests, conducted by the Catholic University of America, has convincingly displayed the truth of Dulles’s remarks, with an astounding 76 percent of American priests finding current episcopal leadership untrustworthy. A commission charged with revising the charter’s norms—in accordance with both natural justice and Christian theology—would be a fitting tribute to the cardinal’s theological acumen and to his profound love for the Church.
Some critics of the decision to opt for bankruptcy reorganization have speculated the church is merely protecting its assets or that the Archdiocese can seek financial help from the Vatican. Others have suggested the church is hiding assets or that it is flush with cash. Still others believe the Archdiocese is using bankruptcy to avoid its moral obligation to aid survivors. None of this is true. In fact, the Archdiocese’s annual income versus liabilities allows it to operate on a relatively thin margin, with surplus funds used to operate the many Church ministries that support those most in need.
Increasingly, legal experts say, organizations flooded with a vast number of lawsuits accusing them of wrongful harm are relying on the bankruptcy system — not the civil legal system, as is typical — to devise settlements. By filing for bankruptcy, those entities are offered a path that shields them from future civil litigation, in part because bankruptcy is rooted in the idea that someone facing losses should have an opportunity to wipe the slate clean. In filing a brief in support of Purdue Pharma, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said these types of settlements offered a chance to fairly compensate survivors of sexual abuse while ensuring the longevity of the Catholic church . . . "the only viable means for the Catholic infrastructure in many communities to survive what has become decades of mission-crippling litigation".
The pope said it also is essential to “pursue the ascertainment of the truth and the restoration of justice in the ecclesial community, including in those cases where certain behaviors are not considered crimes by the law of the state, but are under canon law.” Efforts to help survivors heal are “a work of justice,” the pope told the group. “Precisely for this reason it is important to prosecute those who commit such crimes, especially in ecclesial contexts.” The perpetrators themselves “have the moral duty of a profound personal conversion that leads to recognition of their own vocational infidelity, to the resumption of the spiritual life and the humble request for forgiveness from the victims of their actions,” he said. Also, he said, efforts must continue to train priests and all pastoral workers in safeguarding so that “a genuine cultural change is promoted, placing at the center the smallest and most vulnerable in the church and in society.
The safeguard of confession. Too often, commentators quickly assume that mandatory reporting is the one fail-safe solution to deter abuse. While it’s clear why this has become a push for many activists, scholars focused on mandatory reporting have cautioned against simplistic conclusions. One study, for example, found measurably fewer confirmed reports of child maltreatment in the 11 states requiring clergy to report all or some of the time — compared with states without the requirement. What people may not understand is that by forcing clergy to become mandated reporters, we could inadvertently keep even more abuse hidden as abusers go underground. Likewise, it’s possible that a space for open confession may provide additional protection to victims by ensuring space exists for clergy to encourage bad actors to turn themselves in or helping to catch and deter concerning behaviors that could spiral.
The Archdiocese denies the allegations in legal filings. “I have not yet received a credible allegation against a priest, although I have received allegations,” the Archbishop said. When asked how many cases the Archdiocese has received in that time, he said there have been seven or eight accusations the church has had to investigate. The Archdiocese’s process for responding to an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor involves reporting the allegation to civil authorities and removing the accused priest from active ministry while an investigation is conducted by a qualified investigator. Asked why the Archdiocese has not published a list of credibly accused clergy, the Archbishop said that no one has given him a reason for doing so. “The most important thing is that our young people are being protected and that those who abuse are kept out of ministry for doing that,” he added.
In the realm of sexual crimes, a stark contrast exists in the level of media attention and public awareness when the perpetrators wear different hats, specifically, the robes of the Catholic Church versus the more secular attire of public school teachers or individuals from diverse spiritual beliefs. When allegations of sexual misconduct arise within the Catholic Church, the media responds with a resounding uproar that reverberates globally. Cases involving Catholic priests make headlines, sparking international outrage, and prompting discussions about accountability and reform. Furthermore, authors exploring themes of scandal and controversy within the Catholic Church frequently experience an unexpected surge in international fame.
A closer look at the largest survey of U.S. Catholic priests in 50 years has revealed “a major shift in how priests view themselves and their priesthood,” said researchers. Compared to their older peers, younger priests are far more likely to describe themselves as theologically orthodox or conservative, politically conservative or moderate, and prepared to be “first responders” to the abuse victims they encounter in their ministry. Furthermore, researchers noted “a significant proportion of American priests say that they had ‘personally experienced sexual harassment or abuse or suffered sexual misconduct’ during their formation or time in seminary.”
Seminaries currently have courses on pastoral theology or pastoral care, pastoral ministry and introduction to counseling “that’s very useful” to seminarians. However, trauma-informed care isn’t a part of current seminary formation, which they found would better prepare seminarians. “Trauma-informed pastoral care has been very recently developed in the last five to 10 years,” Berg explained. “So, this is not a criticism of seminaries, it’s just to say that there’s a lot of good stuff available out there, and it’s really helpful and it’s not hard to get your hands on, and we just need to get this into the thick of seminary pastoral formation and ministry.”