Pope Francis Needs To Come Clean On Chilean Sex Abuse

February 09, 2018

By Rich Barlow, February 09, 2018, WBUR-FM Boston

As a Catholic, I've disagreed with critics of Pope Francis from both ends of the spectrum.

Right-wing whining (he's for the poor and the environment? Marxism!) is just daft; leftist grousing (he’s all style and no substance, as when declining to condemn gays while upholding church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts) ignores the effect of personal example on a conservative culture. Airing out a musty attic makes breathing easier, even if the attic still needs some cleaning.

But now comes news that Francis personally received a letter two years ago from a man who claimed Chilean Bishop Juan Barros stood by and watched a priest abuse the letter writer. Yet just last month, the pope dissed . . .

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Showing 1 comment

John Nesbella commented 2018-02-09 11:04:11 -0600
Rich Barlow wrote that the Pope owes an apology and explanation to catholics. We don’t need anymore lip service-like apologies or explanations-we want action. How about the pope start holding priests and bishops accountable and delivering some justice: he could begin by removing sexual molester priests and bishops from ministry and turn them over to prison. He could begin by making reparations to the hundreds of thousands of survivors of sexual abuse by priests-instead of calling them liars and slanderers. Talk is cheap and all we hear is cheap talk. We want justice: punish the criminals and help the people you hurt. The rest of the world seems to get this: Jerry Sandusky is in prison and many people at Penn State who covered up have been removed and turned over to the police. Nassar is going to prison…Weinstein is out…so are many others. The last hold out is the Roman Catholic church and this pope. Justice seems to be happening everywhere except in this church which is responsible for the biggest group of sexual molesters on this planet. I don’t need anymore lip service from popes, bishops and priests-I want justice.

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