Pope Francis wants ‘absolute transparency’ as he pushes Vatican reform

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The Church had the Priest crisis of 2002 partly because of lack of transparency.

Now we have a Bishop crisis of 2018 (with Cardinal McCarrick and all Bishops who knew).

Much of the root of the problem has been a lack of transparency.

This is an older article from the Washington Post (from 2015) but an extremely TIMELY article as well.

Pope Francis has been calling for TRANSPARENCY for quite some time.

A lot of people on CAF here have been complaining about the calls for transparency in dealing with the McCarrick crisis.

They forget that these marching orders of transparency come from the Pope himself and have been re-affirmed by our Holy Father as recently as sevreral days ago (which I will ALSO include links to in posts on this thread below).

Let’s take the call from Pope Francis for transparency in Ecclesial matters seriously.

And while we are prayerfully waiting upon the Holy Spirit, let’s refrain from impugning our Holy Father or any of our Bishops (including Archbishop Vigano).

Pope Francis wants ‘absolute transparency’ as he pushes Vatican reform​

By David Gibson | Religion News Service Washington Post

February 12, 2015

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called for a Vatican that operates with “absolute transparency” as he gathered more than 165 cardinals in Rome for high-level meetings aimed at tackling one of the toughest challenges of his reformist papacy: overhauling the dysfunctional bureaucracy of the Roman Curia.

The goal, Francis told a lecture hall filled with the “princes of the church,” is to encourage “greater harmony” among the different church offices in a bid to foster “absolute transparency that builds authentic … collegiality.”

“Reform is not an end in itself, but a means of bearing a powerful Christian witness,” Francis said.

That was a nod to the scandals that overshadowed the waning years of Benedict XVI’s papacy and undermined the Vatican’s credibility with the public and the dismayed churchmen who had to deal with the fallout. . . .
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(emphasis mine)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?utm_term=.25302317d6cb&noredirect=on
 
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DUBLIN — Pope Francis faced a lukewarm reception and scattered protests Saturday on his trip to Ireland, with even his vow to rid the church of the “scourge” of sexual abuse and his outrage at those “repugnant crimes” dismissed . . . .

. . . The visit was originally intended to celebrate Catholic families but has been overshadowed by the renewed abuse crisis. . . .

. . . , “The failure of ecclesiastical authorities — bishops, religious superiors, priests and others — to adequately address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,” he told them. “I myself share these sentiments.”

He cited measures taken by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to respond to the crisis. But while Benedict is credited with cracking down on abusers, he never acknowledged the Vatican’s role in fueling a culture of cover-up or sanctioned bishops for failing to protect their flocks from predator . . . .
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Of course CBS may be wrong here. Pope Benedict MAY have cracked down on McCarrick.

We still need more information.

www.cbsnews.com

Pope Francis decries abuse cover-up, meets with victims in Ireland

Pope Francis provided no new details of any measures he would take to sanction bishops who fail to protect their flocks from predator priests
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
 
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After the recent Pennsylvania grand jury report Pope Francis has given us our marching orders . . . .

Pope on sexual abuse: ‘We showed no care for the little ones’​

Francis condemns culture of cover-ups and promises zero tolerance in letter to Catholics​

Harriet Sherwood, Religion correspondent

@harrietsherwood

Mon 20 Aug 2018 09.59 EDTFirst published on Mon 20 Aug 2018 07.04 EDT

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Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday

Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged the failures of the Roman Catholic church in dealing with sexual abuse by priests, attacking a “culture of death” and deferential “clericalism” that helps perpetuate evil. . . .

. . . Francis’s letter said: “Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

The wounds of sexual abuse, and the abuse of power, would never disappear. The heart-wrenching pain of victims was “long-ignored, kept quiet or silenced”.

He added: “With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realising the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” . . .
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www.theguardian.com

Pope on sexual abuse: 'We showed no care for the little ones'

Francis condemns culture of cover-ups and promises zero tolerance in letter to Catholics
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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Cathoholic said:
Pope Francis has been calling for TRANSPARENCY for quite some time.
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Where is it?
Cathoholic said:
After the recent Pennsylvania grand jury report Pope Francis has given us our marching orders . . . .
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Weren’t we supposed to have “zero tolerance” after the last Church child sex abuse scandal? And the one before that?
 
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Eliminate the scourge of abuse​

Aug. 25, 2018

Within the Church there must be “a greater commitment” to definitively eliminate the “scourge” of abuses: and it must be done “at any cost, moral and of suffering”. . . .

. . . the Pope again expressed “pain” and “shame” for “the grave scandal” that has shocked the Irish Church. A report accompanied the admission of the “failure of ecclesiastical authorities–bishops, religious superiors, priests and others–adequately to address” these cases and the invitation to “remedy past mistakes” adopting “stringent norms meant to ensure that they do not happen again”. . . .
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http://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/eliminate-scourge-abuse
 
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The courage of purification​

Aug. 27, 2018

bffde91bd62158486283452e1d16ffab3f3001f8.jpeg


“We ask forgiveness”: Pope Francis’s invocation echoed eight times in Dublin’s Phoenix Park during the Penitential Act . . .

. . . . His request gave voice to the cry of pain of all of the victims of abuses committed against young people by members of the clergy, and in particular of those “eight persons who are survivors” . . .

. . . and to ask forgiveness for them”, the Pope pronounced, invoking the Lord to “preserve and increase this sense of shame and repentance, and grant us the strength to ensure that it never happens again”. Shortly after, greeting the Irish bishops before departing the country, he expressed a renewed invitation to continue with courage on the journey of “purification and reconciliation with victims”. . . .

. . . Pope Francis recalled the image of a “domestic Pentecost” to encourage the witness of families called to “break down every barrier in order to reconcile the world to God and to make us what we were always meant to be: a single human family dwelling together in justice, holiness and peace”.
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(Emphasis mine)

http://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/courage-purification
 

Letter to the People of God​

(A L’Osservatore Romano article on the Pope’s Letter. Not the “Letter” itself here)

Aug. 20, 2018

With “shame and repentance”, Pope Francis recognizes the Church’s responsibility and her delays in facing abuses against minors committed by consecrated people and the clergy. “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them”, he acknowledged in his “Letter to the People of God”, released on Monday morning, 20 August, in which he asked once more for forgiveness and called for the commitment of the entire ecclesiastical community, to “uproot the culture of abuse”. . . .

. . . the voice of the victims’ cry of pain. “The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced”, he writes. The recent report from the Grand Jury in Pennsylvania which documents 70 years of cases involving some 300 priests and more than 1,000 minors in six of the state’s eight dioceses, is an opportunity to highlight that “these wounds never disappear and that they require us to forcefully condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death”. But above all, it is a way to remember that no one can avoid taking the responsibility . . .

. . . The Holy Father stressed that “the extent and the gravity of all that has happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive and communal way”. . . .

. . . . the Pope said, recalling that “everyone of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need”. This requires “a personal and communal conversion” which can only be done through “a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting”. . . .

. . . “It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People”, the Pope concludes, warning against the temptation to reduce the Church “to small elites”, and reaffirming that “to say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism”.
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(Parenthesis addition mine)

http://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/letter-people-god
 
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From the ACTUAL LETTER from the Holy Father . . . .

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD​

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” ( 1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. . . .

. . . The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” ( Lk 1:51-53). . . .

. . . With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner . . .

. . . How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency! . . .

. . . I am conscious of the effort and work being carried out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable. We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary. . . .

. . . Together with those efforts, every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need. . . .

. . . . I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting , following the Lord’s command.[1] This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says “never again” to every form of abuse. . . .
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(Emphasis mine)

http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...-francesco_20180820_lettera-popolo-didio.html
 
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More from Pope Francis’ Letter to the People of God
It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.[2] This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.[3]Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism. . . .

. . . It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused . . .

. . . It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused . . .

. . . Mary chose to stand at the foot of her Son’s cross. She did so unhesitatingly, standing firmly by Jesus’ side. In this way, she reveals the way she lived her entire life. When we experience the desolation caused by these ecclesial wounds, we will do well, with Mary, “to insist more upon prayer”, seeking to grow all the more in love and fidelity to the Church . . .

. . . May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before these crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them.

Vatican City, 20 August 2018

FRANCIS
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(Emphasis mine)

http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...-francesco_20180820_lettera-popolo-didio.html
 
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There has not been transparency for nearly 2000 years.

First you have to abolish the Fraternity Mentality that harbors the “Code of Silence”.
 
“The time has come, and the Vatican in fact inaugurated the season, of an open dialogue
without preconceptions, which opens the doors for a serious and fecund meeting.” - Pope
Francis’ Letter to the Founder of La Repubblica Italian Newspaper, September 11, 2013
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Pope Francis' Letter to the Founder of "La Repubblica" Italian Newspaper - ZENIT - English

Here is the translation of the letter sent by Pope Francis to the founder of “La Repubblica” Italian newspaper Eugenio Scalfari in response to several questions made by him in various articles. The Holy Father addresses both Mr. Scalfari and non-believers.
zenit.org zenit.org
 
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