Last week, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office issued an extensive, gruesome grand jury report, detailing decades of abuse by Catholic clergy and subsequent cover-ups by the Catholic Church in the state.
Today, Pope Francis issued a letter in which he condemns the abuse and cover-up and wrote: "Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such [abuses] from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated."
Strong words from someone who was publicly accusing victims of being liars just earlier this year.
But, as we all know, Pope Francis is always there with the strong words to get the headlines and attendant commentary about how progressive he is.
Which he is indeed getting today. In abundance.
The problem is, there's no follow-through on those words; no action to back them up.
Francis did not lay out any concrete steps the Vatican would take, but he acknowledged that systemic change is needed.Oh.
I guess it'll just happen my magic if we all pray hard enough for it to happen.
As I have been saying for many years, the difference in this pontiff is not that he's actually more progressive, but that he's more media-savvy.
I take up space in solidarity with the survivors of abuse, and I hope that they will get more than cynical words from the leader of the institution that enabled their abusers and concealed their abuse.
Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.
blog comments powered by Disqus