SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
London: Two leading candidates to become the next pope have been accused by an international watchdog group of failing to protect children from clergy sexual abuse.
As cardinals prepare to gather in Rome on Wednesday to elect a successor to Pope Francis, the US-based group BishopAccountability.org said neither Italy’s Cardinal Pietro Parolin nor the Philippines’ Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle could be trusted to lead the church out of its global abuse crisis.
Both men are considered leading contenders in the conclave, but the group – which has worked closely with survivors and inquiries in Australia and abroad – says their records suggest a continuation of secrecy and inaction.
Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle (left) from the Philippines and Italy’s Pietro Parolin are the current frontrunners in betting on the new pope.Credit: AP, Getty
Anne Barrett Doyle, the organisation’s co-director, alleged Parolin, who had served as the Vatican’s secretary of state and No.2 to the late pope since 2013, was a key figure in obstructing efforts to bring abusive priests to justice by withholding incriminating church records.
“It can be fairly said that no church official in the world has played as pivotal a role in withholding information about sex crimes from civil authorities [as] Cardinal Parolin,” she said.
Barrett Doyle cited the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse as one of the clearest examples. The commission, which ran from 2013 to 2017, found more than 4400 children had been abused by more than 1100 Catholic clergy. Despite repeated requests from the commission, she said the Vatican had handed over documentation for only two priests.
“The decision not to co-operate with Australia’s request hampered the ability of Australian prosecutors to bring child molesters to justice. That’s obstruction of justice,” Barrett Doyle said.
She described Parolin as a “consummate secret-keeper” and she said “any hope of transparency around sex abuse will be dashed completely” if he were to be elected.
Barrett Doyle also cited incidents where British and Polish authorities were denied access to Vatican-held records, despite requests relating to criminal investigations.
Launched by the Gillard government in 2012, the royal commission heard thousands of accounts of child sexual assault in schools, care homes, churches and youth detention centres. Its findings led to widespread reform recommendations, but survivors and advocates say international co-operation – especially from the Vatican – has been lacking.
Tagle, archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2020, also came under fire from the watchdog group. Often referred to as the “Asian Francis” for his pastoral style and his progressive tone, Tagle has been seen as a leading candidate to continue his reform agenda. But BishopAccountability.org says his record on tackling abuse is deeply troubling.
“He is a gentleman who weeps when he talks about victims, but what we found dismayed us,” Barrett Doyle said.
She said Tagle had failed to implement meaningful reforms in the Philippines, where the church wields immense political and social influence. She said guidelines for handling abuse had not been published by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippinesand nor by Tagle’s former archdiocese, and in one case, the conference issued a document partly blaming children for abuse by clergy.
“If Cardinal Tagle cannot even get his brother bishops from his home country to publish guidelines, what on earth can we expect for him to achieve as pope of a global church?” Barrett Doyle said.
The bishops’ conference issued a rare statement responding to the claims, saying that addressing misconduct allegations was the responsibility of “the respective diocesan bishops or religious superiors”, not Tagle. It also said Tagle had played a key role in developing guidelines for dealing with sexual abuse cases when he was Manila’s archbishop, London’s The Telegraph reported.
A Vatican spokesman declined to comment about the accusations made against both cardinals.
Chrissie Foster, one of Australia’s highest-profile advocates for abuse victims, said after Francis’ death on Easter Monday that the Pope had had “years of opportunities to make sweeping changes to protect children from the sex crimes of his clergy” but that he had “failed to do so”.
“If the Pope had been serious about protecting children, he would have told, ordered, every bishop and archbishop in the world to hand over to police the secret archives on clergy crimes they hold,” Foster said. “Instead, the Pope blamed the devil for clergy criminal behaviour. But the devil cannot be taken to court nor incarcerated. It was a cop-out – just empty words.”
Rumours about Parolin’s health have swirled in recent days. Italian media says the 70-year-old fainted from high blood pressure and required medical attention on Wednesday.
Holy See press office director Matteo Bruni has denied the various reports.
Barrett Doyle said Parolin and Tagle represented broader systemic failings in the global church hierarchy and that she had concerns about nearly all papal contenders.
Asked if any candidates had shown leadership on the issue, she pointed to Boston’s Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, a member of Pope Francis’ anti-abuse commission.
“I don’t believe he is a hero,” she said. “But he has done a little more than everyone else. He is perhaps the least bad of many bad options.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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