Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) President Tim Lennon from Tucson, Ariz., center, and SNAP members Esther Hatfield Miller from Los Angeles, Calif., left, and Carol Midboe from Austin, pose for pictures during interviews with the media in St. Peter鈥檚 Square at the Vatican during Pope Francis鈥� general audience, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. Organizers of Pope Francis鈥� summit on preventing clergy sex abuse met with a dozen survivor-activists who have come to Rome to protest the Catholic Church鈥檚 response to date and demand an end to decades of cover-up by church leaders. (AP)
VATICAN CITY聽 鈥� Survivors of clergy sex abuse on Wednesday demanded transparency, zero tolerance for abuse and accountability for religious superiors who cover up for rapists, setting a confrontational tone on the eve of Pope Francis鈥� high-stakes abuse prevention summit.
The victims also demanded to meet with Francis himself, but had to settle instead for a two-hour round-table with members of the organizing committee for the four-day summit, which starts Thursday.
The gathering of church leaders from around the globe is taking place amid intense scrutiny of the Catholic Church鈥檚 record after new allegations of abuse and cover-up last year sparked a credibility crisis for the hierarchy.
Phil Saviano, an American who played a crucial role in exposing clergy abuse in the United States decades ago, said he told the summit organizers to release the names of abusive priests around the world along with their case files.
鈥淒o it to launch a new era of transparency,鈥� Saviano said he told the committee. 鈥淒o it to break the code of silence. Do it out of respect for the victims of these men, and do it to help prevent these creeps from abusing any more children.鈥�
More than 30 years after the scandal first erupted in Ireland and Australia and 20 years after it hit the U.S., bishops and superiors in many parts of Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia either deny clergy sex abuse exists in their regions or downplay the problem.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, has made many of the same mistakes. As archbishop in Buenos Aires, he went out of his way to defend a famous street priest who was later convicted of abuse. He also took a handful of measures early on in his papacy that undermined progress the Vatican had made in taking a hard line against rapists.
He finally did an about-face after botching a well-known sex abuse cover-up case in Chile last year. Realizing he had erred, he has vowed to chart a new course and is bringing the rest of the church leadership along with him.
Some 190 leaders of bishops鈥� conferences, religious orders and Vatican offices are gathering for four days of lectures and workshops on preventing sex abuse in their churches, tending to victims and investigating the crimes when they occur.
鈥淚 think that the time for words is long, long past,鈥� said Archbishop Mark Benedict Coleridge, of Brisbane, Australia, who will deliver the homily at the summit鈥檚 final Mass on Sunday.
鈥淲e are dealing with a global emergency, and I don鈥檛 think the language is too strong,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 global emergency that requires a global response.鈥�
The Vatican isn鈥檛 expecting any miracles, and the pope himself has called for expectations to be 鈥渄eflated.鈥� But organizers say the meeting marks a turning point in the way the Catholic Church has dealt with the problem, with Francis鈥� own acknowledgment of his mistakes in handling the Chile abuse case a key point of departure.
鈥淚 have been impressed by the humility of the Holy Father,鈥� said Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican sex crimes investigator who helped set Francis straight on Chile. 鈥淗e鈥檚 ready to say, 鈥業 got that wrong. We鈥檙e not going to do it again. We鈥檙e going to do it right.'鈥�
鈥淚 think that gives us great hope,鈥� Scicluna said.
But Jamaican survivor Denise Buchanan, who attended Wednesday鈥檚 meeting, demanded to know why the Vatican wasn鈥檛 implementing zero-tolerance policies on sex abuse across the board. The U.S. bishops鈥� conference is considered a model for requiring any priest who is found guilty of molesting a child to be removed permanently from ministry.
鈥淲hat is the holdup in implementing zero tolerance?鈥� Buchanan said. 鈥淚t is like, 鈥極h, we already have the laws, we just need to implement the laws.鈥� Obviously, the laws are not working because children are being raped right now.鈥�
Francois Devaux, from the French victims鈥� group La Parole Lib茅r茅e, 鈥� The Liberated Word 鈥� said the survivors made similar points to the committee members, and asked what exactly the summit was expected to accomplish.
鈥淭he great absence from this meeting was the pope, and that was clearly underlined,鈥� he said.
Francis did, however, meet with a victim on Wednesday, apparently on the sidelines of his general audience. A video of the meeting showed Francis holding and then kissing the hand of Polish survivor, Marek Lisinski, who heads Poland鈥檚 Have No Fear foundation.
Lisinski went to the Vatican with a delegation headed by Polish lawmaker Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, who gave Francis a report on hundreds of alleged cases of abuse and cover-up in Poland.
In a statement after Wednesday鈥檚 meeting with the survivors ended, the summit organizers thanked the victims for 鈥渟incerity, the depth and the strength of their testimonies.鈥�
They said the survivors鈥� input would help them understand the 鈥済ravity and urgency鈥� of the problem during the summit.
Among those meeting with the survivors was Scicluna, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India and German Jesuit the Rev. Hans Zollner, an expert in child protection. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the former Vatican spokesman who is moderating the summit, also participated.
The Vatican had asked Chilean survivor Juan Carlos Cruz, who last year helped open Francis鈥� eyes to the seriousness of the abuse scandal in his country, to arrange the Wednesday鈥檚 meeting.
鈥淭he culture of cover-up needs to end,鈥� Cruz said after the meeting, which was held on the grounds of a gated Vatican residence with survivor protesters waiting outside.