French Catholic Church Will Sell Assets to Compensate Abuse Victims

The measure was one of several measures announced by French bishops, one month after a landmark report on sexual abuse by clergy members in France.

The Roman Catholic Church in France will sell some of its assets to compensate victims of sexual abuse, French bishops announced on Monday, one month after the release of a sweeping report on sexual abuse by the clergy that has fueled growing calls for reform.

“We will ensure that no one is left behind,” Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of Reims and the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, told reporters after a meeting of bishops over the past week in Lourdes, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site in southwestern France.

The measure, one of several approved near unanimously on Monday by the bishops, was greeted by victims groups as a significant step in the French church’s reckoning of sexual abuse in its ranks, which accelerated after the release of the report last month.

But they cautioned that they would keep a watchful eye on the implementation of the measures announced Monday, which also included the creation of an independent reparations body to process victims’ claims. The bishops also said they planned to set up working groups, presided over by laypeople, that will draw up concrete proposals by 2023 on issues like the training of priests.

Olivier Savignac, a member of De la parole aux actes!, an umbrella association of victim groups established after the report was released, said that a culture of opaqueness and secrecy had been “broken.”

“Now we want to see how things are going to be implemented,” Mr. Savignac said, citing the staffing of the working groups and of the reparations body, which will be led by Marie Derain de Vaucresson, a legal expert who specializes in the rights of children.The devastating church-ordered report last month estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children or vulnerable people had been abused over the past 70 years by clergy members or people affiliated with the church — a projection based on a general population survey, a public call for victims’ testimony, archival analysis and other sources.

For the first time last week, France’s 120 bishops recognized that the church bore an “institutional responsibility” for “systemic” abuse.

It’s the sign of a positive dynamic, which must still be confirmed,” Jérôme Chapuis, the editor in chief of La Croix, a respected Catholic newspaper in France, wrote in an editorial on Sunday. “Because this fragile process is only in its early stages.”

The announcement on compensation was widely awaited by victims of clerical abuse, who had balked at earlier suggestions by France’s Catholic leadership that the victims compensation fund should be financed mainly by parishioner donations.

“It’s what we were hoping for,” said Mr. Savignac, who was sexually abused by a priest at age 13. “Because it’s the institution that is taking responsibility and paying.”

The Church will sell assets, including real estate, and could even take out a loan if needed, Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort said. Each victim will also be compensated individually — another key demand from victims groups, who had rejected suggestions of a flat fee and said each case needed to be evaluated separately. Some victims say they need to recoup years of medical bills and other expenses linked to the trauma caused by the abuse.

Parishioners can still donate money directly to the compensation fund, but general parishioner donations, which account for a large portion of the Catholic Church’s funding in France, will not be used, the bishops said on Monday.

Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort did not provide any details about how much the church expected that the compensation fund would grow, but said it would be endowed gradually as victims came forward. Nor did he provide an inventory of what the church expected to sell. Some French dioceses, like the one in Paris, have sizable real estate assets, but others are struggling financially.

“Obviously we must gather sums that are far greater than what we had imagined, given the scope of the abuse,” he said.

The bishops have also asked Pope Francis to send a team of “trusted” advisers to help evaluate the French church’s child-protection measures. The Vatican’s role in the handling of abuse scandals in the Catholic Church has been criticized by victims’ groups, who argue that it is an obstacle to reform on some issues, like holding negligent bishops accountable, requiring that allegations be reported to civil authorities, and, in rare cases, using confession to keep abuse secret.

The bishops voted on Monday to create a special canonical court that will handle abuse cases nationwide, to avoid having priests accused of abuse judged by local church leaders who may be inclined to protect them.

But other issues related to canon law are outside of the French church’s purview and would require a policy shift in Rome. French Catholic leaders are expected to meet with Pope Francis in December.

“We are not at the end of the path,” Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort said in his closing speech on Monday. “But a path is possible, it has been laid out for us, and we must follow it step by step.”

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November 6, 2021

‘No desire for truth’ in Spain’s Catholic church over child sex abuse

Spanish tour guide Fernando Garcia Salmones, 60 years old, poses at his home during an interview for AFP in Madrid on October 18, 2021. Unlike in other countries where child sex scandals have forced the Catholic Church towards accountability, the Spanish church has actively avoided investigating abuses by its clergy to the fury of victims.

In recent decades, thousands have spoken out about harrowing abuses by clergy across the United States, Europe, Australia and beyond, prompting probes in many nations seeking redress for the victims. But why not in Spain?

In France alone, a study commissioned by the French Catholic Church found last month its clergy had abused some 216,000 minors since 1950.

But in Spain, there are no official statistics on child sex abuse.

The Church says it has counted just 220 cases since 2001, and has ruled out “actively” investigating any such allegations.

“The case of the Church in Spain is… shameful,” says Fernando García Salmones, who was abused as a teenager at a school run by Roman Catholic priests in Madrid.

“They have no desire to know the truth,” the 60-year-old tour guide told AFP, saying the abuse destroyed his life and left him feeling “dirty”, “guilty” and “like a piece of shit”.

Historically, Spain has always been a deeply-Catholic country, and some 55 percent of the population identifies as Roman Catholic, a religion deeply embedded in the country’s culture.

The Church in Spain has not explained why it is refusing to hold a comprehensive investigation, saying only it has put in place protocols to manage allegations of abuses by its clergy.

No accountability

For García Salmones, memories of abuse still haunt him today.

“I was studying at the Claretian School of Madrid, I was 14 and one day, the priest jumped on me and continued abusing me every day for practically a whole year,” he said.

On one occasion, he was “abused by the priest and another person who came into the room”, leading him to conclude that the school “knew what was happening and protected” his abuser.

He didn’t speak about his ordeal until he was 40 but by then, the crime was too old to be investigated.

The priest he accused of abuse died in 2009 “without any kind of accountability”.

After García Salmones went public in 2018, he said the school moved to prevent any fresh abuses, with a management statement stressing its “zero tolerance” of any such conduct and commitment “to always investigate any inappropriate behaviour by its members”.

But he says the first reaction of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) was to dismiss his account as “a bid to seek financial compensation”.

A picture taken in 2014 shows archbishop of Granada and other priests during a mass in a gesture of apology to victims of abuse. Photo: AFP PHOTO/ STRINGER (Photo by AFP) — A picture taken in 2014 shows archbishop of Granada and other priests during a mass in a gesture of apology to victims of abuse.

‘Stonewalling and denial’

The Bishops’ Conference declined an interview with AFP.

In a written response, it said it had put in place “protocols for action where cases of abuse were identified and specific training for people working with young people and children”.

It “was aware of 220 cases that had been investigated since 2001”, and had set up offices for “child protection and abuse prevention” in its 70 dioceses where complaints could be filed.

Such offices could also “help victims” and “investigate, where possible, the circumstances under which (abuses) occurred”.

According to the CEE’s website, its 2010 action protocol outlined steps such as barring anyone accused of abuses from working with children.

In 2019, a committee presented a draft child protection decree, which remains unfinished.

But the Church has ruled out any exhaustive inquiry.

“We are not going to proactively engage in a comprehensive investigation of the matter,” Monsignor Luis Arguello, the CEE’s secretary general said in September.

The Church “gives the appearance of doing something but it’s not,” says Juan Cuatrecasas, head of victims’ association Infancia Robada, or ‘stolen childhood’ in English.

“It is doing its homework very quickly and very badly,” he says, pointing to a bigger picture of “stonewalling and denial”.

‘Damaging human rights’

Jesús Zudaire, who runs a victims’ association in the northern Navarre region and was himself abused, says Spain could “easily” have a similar number of cases to France.

He highlights the power of the Church in Spanish society and its cosy arrangement with the decades-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which ended in 1975.

El País newspaper began investigating abuse allegations in 2018 and has since received details of 932 cases.

In not taking a proactive approach, the Church “is damaging human rights” and inflicting further harm on the victims, says campaigner Cuatrecasas, whose 24-year-old son was abused by a teacher at a Catholic school in Bilbao between 2008 and 2010.

The teacher was initially handed 11 years in jail but the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to two years, and as a first offender he spent no time behind bars.

Although the Church follows abuse prevention protocols in line with those laid out by the Vatican, victims’ groups want the Spanish government to step in with legislation to prevent Church cover-ups.

Earlier this year, Spain’s parliament approved a child protection law extending the statute of limitations for abuse cases, meaning survivors can report abuses for up to 15 years after they turn 35.

Previously, the clock started when they were 18.

Although victims wanted the legislation to be retroactive, they hailed the step as a positive first move.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

November 5, 2021

Top US Catholic bishop calls social justice movements ‘pseudo-religion’

FILE UNDER: Insulated, monolithic, callous, tone deaf church power structure

Religious leaders and people of faith played a prominent role in last year’s racial justice demonstrations after George Floyd’s murder.

By Jack Jenkins

Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, railed against “new social justice movements” during a speech Thursday (Nov. 4), decrying them as “pseudo-religions” that ultimately serve as “dangerous substitutes for true religion.”

Gomez, who heads the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, delivered the remarks in a video message sent to a meeting of the Congress of Catholics and Public Life in Madrid. The prelate argued the United States, like Europe, has been subject to “aggressive secularization,” insisting “there has been a deliberate effort in Europe and America to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.”

He also lambasted “cancel culture,” contending that “often what is being canceled and corrected are perspectives rooted in Christian beliefs.”

But Gomez saved his most strident criticism for “new social movements and ideologies,” the influence of which, he said, accelerated after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

Although Gomez noted that Floyd’s killing was “a stark reminder that racial and economic inequality are still deeply embedded in our society,” he suggested the movements that inspired related demonstrations last year have been “unleashed in our society” and serve as replacements for “traditional Christian beliefs.”

“With the breakdown of the Judeo-Christian worldview and the rise of secularism, political belief systems based on social justice or personal identity have come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied,” he said. “Whatever we call these movements — ‘social justice,’ ‘wokeness,’ ‘identity politics,’ ‘intersectionality,’ ‘successor ideology’ — they claim to offer what religion provides.”

Gomez’s remarks echoed an argument increasingly common in conservative faith circles. In June, a Southern Baptist minister characterized critical race theory as “paganism,” calling it a “new religion that is on the wrong side of history.”

Gomez did not mention Black Lives Matter by name but claimed that while “many of those who subscribe to these new movements and belief systems are motivated by noble intentions,” the movements themselves — namely, “critical theories and ideologies” — are “profoundly atheistic” concepts that “deny the soul, the spiritual, transcendent dimension of human nature.”

He insisted the movements resemble “some of the heresies that we find in church history,” as well as liberation theology — a poverty-focused field of theology with historic roots among Latin American Catholics, but which has brought complicated and often fraught responses from Catholic hierarchy.

“I believe that it is important for the church to understand and engage these new movements — not on social or political terms, but as dangerous substitutes for true religion,” he said.

Gomez’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

His remarks elicited comebacks on social media, and did not appear to grapple with how churches opened their doors to demonstrators in 2020, or how clergy were among those arrested during protests. Clergy were also among the racial justice demonstrators who were forcibly expelled by authorities acting on behalf of the Trump administration from Lafayette Square and nearby St. John’s Church near the White House on June 1, 2020.

Faith leaders also participated in racial justice demonstrations in California, and a Catholic activist filed suit after being injured while protesting in Buffalo, New York.

While Gomez characterized new social movements as evidence of “extremism” and a “harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving approach to politics,” some observers noted that he did not mention anti-vaccine demonstrations or violent incidents such as the Jan. 6 insurrection, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol — including many who invoked their faith while doing so.

In a 2020 book co-written by Pope Francis and his biographer, the pontiff warned that protests can be manipulated but expressed overall support for Floyd demonstrations. He also criticized those who demonstrated against pandemic restrictions “as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!”

The pope suggested some Catholics had exacerbated the issue, saying, “you’ll never find such people protesting the death of George Floyd, or joining a demonstration because there are shantytowns where children lack water or education.”

Gomez, who recently tweeted that Catholics “are not activists,” did invoke Dorothy Day, a famous Catholic activist best known for her efforts to combat poverty in the 20th century. Day, Gomez said, was “an important witness for how Catholics can work to change our social order through radical detachment and love for the poor grounded in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount and the works of mercy.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

November 4, 2021

Why the sexual abuse revelations about Catholic clergy in France were grimly unsurprising

The Catholic Church’s defensiveness and culture of secrecy have made it tragically reluctant to admit error and slow to put in place safeguards.

By Michael Coren

The October revelations concerning sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy in France were cruelly unsurprising. The report, the result of an independent inquiry that began in 2018, exposed how since the 1950s more than 216,000 children had been sexually abused by clergy. There were around 3,000 separate abusers, those who complained about their assault weren’t believed, known abusers were moved rather than charged, and the church hierarchy seemed more intent on denial and obfuscation than protection and justice.

It is a story that we’ve heard from nation after nation, city after city, diocese after diocese. And even the latest papal reaction sounded like devilish déjà vu. Pope Francis said he “felt pain” at what had happened, a banality he’s uttered numerous times as outrages come to light, though sometimes only after public pressure.

At least he acknowledged that the abuse had happened, which is more that can be said about many of his predecessors. Pope John Paul II was especially bad in this regard. It was the Boston sexual abuse scandal reported in 2002 that opened the doors for further investigation, and in that case journalists, activists and survivors had to constantly fight lawyers and bishops in their search for justice. Whatever the Roman Catholic Church might like us to believe, little of its contrition has been voluntary.

In my adopted home of Canada, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto went so far as to appeal a legal settlement awarded to survivors of systemic sexual abuse. Damages worth C$2.57m (£1.5m) were given after the main abuser – William Hodgson Marshall – admitted his numerous crimes over a 38-year career. Rejecting the argument that the payment was too generous, the Ontario Court of Appeal stated: “In rendering the award, the jury was no doubt taking into account the evidence that the Basilians knew Marshall had been abusing boys before he was ever ordained, they allowed Marshall to sexually abuse children for more than three decades as a teacher and religious figure, and they decided to move him to different schools when incidents of abuse were reported instead of preventing further harm.”

Once again, entirely standard, whether it’s Ireland, Canada, the UK, US or pretty much anywhere else the Catholic Church has authority and control. Not, of course, that abuse is confined to one particular religious institution, but it’s the scale and regularity of the Catholic phenomenon that is unique, and the way that even now the Church escapes the sort of condemnation that would surely be applied to a secular institution.

Church leaders may have agreed to put in place long-overdue safeguards and precautions but this is largely window-dressing when the fundamental causes remain so firmly present.

The first of these is enforced celibacy. The Church reveres procreation but has a troubled view of sex. Masturbation, for example, is a sin, and homosexuality an “intrinsically disordered” act “of grave depravity” that is “contrary to natural law”, according to its catechism.

Yet in his 2000 book The Changing Face of the Priesthood, Donald Cozzens estimates that as many as 58 per cent of priests are gay. This is pertinent. Because of the Church’s homophobia, even celibate gay men have to disguise their sexuality, and that cloud of unknowing can shelter not only gay men who are innocent, but also abusive priests who molest children. One of the many tragedies of the ongoing scandal is that Rome, in an attempt to distract from the real problems, has pointed the finger at gay clergy – even though the Church’s own 2011 study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice confirmed that there was no connection between homosexuality and paedophilia, which is precisely what every other credible investigation has found. Yet as part of the alleged response to the abuse crisis, Pope Francis had made it more difficult for gay men to enter a seminary than it was under any of his more conservative predecessors.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

November 3, 2021

Priests’ group slam some bishops for their treatment of overworked, elderly and gay priests

Group is taking legal action on behalf of one priest on sick leave who has not been paid by his diocese for two years

By Sarah Mac Donald

A group of priests has blasted some of the country’s bishops over their treatment of overworked, elderly and in some instances gay priests.

In a statement on Monday, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which represents a third of the Irish Church’s priests, revealed it had resorted to legal action on behalf of one priest on sick leave who was not paid his salary by his diocese for two years.

In another diocese, a priest who was out of ministry was not given accommodation and had to live with family members.

According to the ACP, gay priests have been refused permission to work in parishes by some bishops while in other dioceses they are treated as equal and valued members of the priesthood.

Other concerns raised by the ACP relate to priests whose bishops commented disparagingly on their personal appearance and ministry and who were left with “their confidence undermined, and their pastoral effectiveness diminished”.

The list of 11 complaints outlined by the ACP also includes priests who have been refused permission to say funeral Masses for parents or close family members and priests, and priests who despite having no accusation of abuse against them, have been forced out of the priesthood because their bishop decided it was ‘the ‘best thing’ for them.

According to the ACP, it has seen an increase in complaints from priests over their treatment by certain bishops in the Irish hierarchy. Most of the priests are not members of the association but feel they had nowhere else to turn.

“There is a small number of bishops and archbishops who consistently represent the vast majority of complaints being received from priests and who need to be held to account for it,” the ACP said.

A spokesperson said the ACP, as an association committed to supporting priests in need, is prepared to challenge bishops who fail to live up to their responsibility as bishops which is to be shepherds to their priests as well as to their people.

Fr Tim Hazelwood told the Irish Independent that the ACP is calling on bishops to change the way they interact and deal with their priests. He referred to one case he is personally acquainted with in which there was no accusation against the priest but the bishop “just wanted to get rid of the priest. He doesn’t like him. It’s awful. It’s appalling”.

“There is a culture and understanding within the priesthood that you are obedient and that you stay quiet. You are seen as a troublemaker if you say anything. So, fellows just stay quiet,” the Killeagh-Inch parish priest explained.

“Some of the cases we have outlined were priests who are in difficulty. Maybe they weren’t the most agreeable, but they still deserve to be treated with dignity.”

While Fr Hazelwood acknowledged that most Irish bishops were mindful of the needs and situation of their priests, there were some bishops who gave “absolutely no support” to their priests.

“Priests in Ireland are getting older. The expectations is that they will take on extra parishes. In the workplace, for most people, there is a union where you can go and make a complaint. We don’t have that. And that’s what the difficulty is – the priest is expected to negotiate himself and if you’re going through difficulties, and life is not going well for you, or if you don’t have the personality to fight for yourself, what do you do? Most fellas just stay quiet.”

The Bishops did not respond to a request for a comment.

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