Catholics around the world marked the beginning of the Lenten Season on Wednesday. Aside from reflecting on their individual affairs, it is also a good time for the faithful to ponder how the Church has conducted itself throughout its long history of sexual abuse and institutional coverup.
For four days last month, top officials of the Vatican held a summit where they heard testimony from victims who survived to talk about their ordeal.
At the end of the summit, Pope Francis said there should be an all-out battle against this evil. He spoke about abuse being a worldwide phenomenon and how it can occur in families, schools and athletic facilities.
But abuse is all the more grave and scandalous in the Church, he said, because it is incompatible with the Church's moral authority and ethical credibility.
The pontiff promised to do all that is necessary to bring justice to those who committed the crimes. The Vatican also said it was in the process of releasing a guidebook for bishops that would help them understand their duties and tasks.
In the past, erring priests were simply transferred to other assignments, giving them complete freedom to commit the same heinous acts all over again. Sometimes they are even given plum appointments.
A recent example is Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic official in Australia. Pell had been hounded by allegations of abuse for decades; he still somehow found his way to the innermost circles of the Vatican. In December 2018, he was found guilty of one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 and four counts of indecent assault of a child under the age of 16—a verdict that was only made public in February. Pell has maintained his innocence and will appeal.
Despite Pope Francis' unprecedented—among his predecessors—stance against clerical abuse, many still find the Church's response feeble. There was, for instance, no mention of a zero-tolerance policy that would automatically remove from the ministry those who are found guilty.
It is very easy for the Church hierarchy to condemn abuse as well as the practice of covering it because it is so blatantly wrong, even reprehensible. But when the generalities give way to real names and faces and actual situations, the strong stance wavers.
Catholics do not expect a complete and sudden turnaround of their leaders. Centuries of practices and inclinations are certainly difficult, if not near-impossible, to overcome. But it is also true that an institution that is not self-aware and that plays deaf to the demands of the faithful will eventually find itself challenged and irrelevant.
Indeed the Catholic Church is led by fallible human beings. This is not an excuse, however, to live beneath the demands of truth, faith, and humanity. The faithful are waiting for concrete action, something that has never been done, perhaps not even imagined, before.