The Deacon's Bench
Today, this happened:
A bishop is being ordained in southern Chile amid protests by sex-abuse victims who accuse him of covering up crimes of a mentor whom the Vatican has sanctioned for abusing young boys.
Pope Francis chose the 58-year-old Rev. Juan Barros as bishop of the southern city of Osorno. Hundreds of churchgoers dressed in the black of mourning were protesting outside Osorno’s cathedral, which is being heavily guarded by riot police.
Top leaders of Chile’s Catholic Church were absent, saying they had previous engagements.
The Anchoress, meantime, takes a closer look at a story that has a lot of people baffled—and some furious:
There have been several news reports on the controversial nature of the Barros appointment, but for whatever reason, not much reaction. I can’t help but be surprised. It seems to me that if Pope Benedict were making this appointment, it would be front-page and above-the-fold, and leading every newscast, and the punditry would be unrelentingly interested.
CBS News (online): Pope’s views on pedophiles put to the test in Chile:
Juan Carlos Cruz recalls that he and another teen boy would lie down on the priest’s bed, one resting his head at the man’s shoulder, another sitting near his feet. The priest would kiss the boys and grope them, he said, all while the Rev. Juan Barros watched.
“Barros was there, and he saw it all,” Cruz, now a 51-year-old journalist, told The Associated Press.
Then, she raises this very sound point:
Well, I’m all for mercy, and for all any of us know, Barros has confessed to whatever culpability he may (or may not) have had in these ugly incidents, and has been absolved and done penance. For all I know his soul is now pristine as the snow falling outside my window, and he is more fit for heaven than I am at this moment.
But what is just, in this case? Some of the details reported in those articles will, at best, give scandal to the church and further erode her moral authority in the eyes of a world already inclined to distrust her. At worst?
At worst, they discredit Pope Francis in the eyes of many, and cast a jaundiced eye toward his pronouncements about “zero tolerance,” and his mercy for the victims of sexual abuse around the world.
For his part, Barros has been silent. According to the CBS News report, he’s “declined to comment publicly on allegations against him. Now bishop for Chile’s armed forces, he has said he learned of [allegations of] abuse through a 2010 news report he saw on television, according to court records.” While Barros is not directly accused of abuse, reports allege that he may have been a witness and an accessory.
Barros isn’t the only one who’s keeping quiet. To date, there’s been no official response from the Vatican—no statement of support for the appointee, no announcement that he has been investigated and cleared, no expression of sympathy for those who say they were victimized and abused.
Dear Pope Francis: shouldn’t someone say something?
Photo via Wikipedia
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