Can an American pope do a better job addressing the clergy sex abuse crisis?

VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Boston Globe

May 8, 2025

By Joan Vennochi

How much the experiences of the US Catholic Church will influence the new pope on this issue is unknown.

An American pope was considered a longshot to be selected as a successor to Pope Francis. But now that it has happened, Pope Leo XIV could be the best hope survivors and their advocates have when it comes to getting the Catholic Church to finally address the long-running clergy sexual abuse scandal in a meaningful way.

It may be a slender hope. After all, files on sexual abuse allegations are still kept secret, widespread coverup still exists in the US Catholic Church, and the new pope’s record on this issue is mixed. But as Anne Barrett Doyle, cofounder of BishopAccountability.org, a Waltham-based watchdog group, wrote recently for the National Catholic Reporter, “Thanks largely to the United States’ unique civil justice system and robust free press, bishops here have been forced to adopt more prudent policies on abuse than bishops in any other country have.”

In other words, as bad as things may be in the United States, they are worse elsewhere in the world.

For example, the US Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy, requiring the permanent removal of priests proven guilty of child sex abuse. Meanwhile, “universal Catholic Church law still lets bishops reinstate proven and admitted child molesters to parish posts and other ministries,” she noted. In addition, four-fifths of the 178 US bishops publish the names of credibly accused clergy. “None provide sufficient detail, and all are incomplete — and yet we’ve seen nothing close to this level of disclosure by bishops anywhere else in the world,” she wrote.

How much the experiences of the US Catholic Church will influence the new pope in dealing with clergy sexual abuse is, of course, unknown.

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo — was never a bishop of a US diocese, Barrett Doyle noted, so while he would know about the policies of “zero tolerance” and public disclosure, he was not subject to them.

In a 2019 interview, the new pope said the church rejects “cover-ups and secrecy” and urged people to report abuse. However, as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the last two years, Barrett Doyle said Leo oversaw cases involving bishops accused of sexual abuse and cover-up and “maintained the secrecy of that process.” As Superior General of the Augustinians and then bishop of the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, he released no names of abusers, she said.

On a positive note, however, one victim of an abusive Catholic cult in Peru said he was responsive and helped get the cult dissolved. “It was a stunning and extremely rare outcome,” Barrett Doyle said.

Find the rest of the article here