Church cover-up of sex abuses ‘wounded victims, eroded trust’–Tagle
Credit to Author: CATHERINE A. MODESTO| Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2019 03:45:50 +0000
MANILA Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has admitted that bishops have wounded victims sex abuse by going as far as “covering up scandals” of erring clergy.
Tagle also acknowledged the fact that protecting the image of the Church has eroded trust in the institution.
“Our lack of response to the suffering of victims even to the point of rejecting them to cover up the scandal to protect perpetrators has injured our people, leaving a deep wound in our relationship with those who are sent to serve,” Tagle said in his speech, a video of which was shared by the Catholic News Service.
“We humbly and sorrowfully admit that a wound has been inflicted by us bishops on the victims and the entire body of Christ,” Tagle said.
Tagle was among the first speakers of the landmark summit on sex abuse at the Vatican, which began on Thursday and would end on Sunday.
Pope Francis has gathered more than 100 bishops and Catholic leaders around the world to come up with “concrete and effective measures” to fight the crisis which has been assailing the Catholic Church for decades.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is currently in Rome attending the convention.
Tagle said that the reality of abuse of minors has rendered prelates undeserving of forgiveness, but that did not mean they ought to stop apologizing for inflicting pain on victims of the clergy.
“The abuse of minors by ordained ministers has inflicted wounds not only on the victims but also on their families, the clergy, the Church, the wider society, the perpetrators themselves, and the bishops,” Tagle said.
“We as a Church must continue to walk with profoundly wounded by abuse, building trust, providing unconditional love and repeatedly forgiveness with the full recognition that we do not deserve your forgiveness in the order of justice,” he added.
He said wounds were often inflicted by “blindness and ambition and legalism and misuse of power.”
Tagle, who became emotional while delivering his speech, has also stressed that victims must remain strong in faith.
“Have you, who are called to have the smell of the sheep upon you, not instead run away when you found the stench of the filth inflicted on children and vulnerable people you were supposed to protect, too strong to endure? Wounds call for healing, but what does healing consist in? How do we, as bishops, who have been part of the wounding, now promote healing in this specific context?”
The summit comes after Carlo Maria Viganò, former Vatican ambassador and apostolic nuncio to the United States wrote a letter on covering up the misconduct of former US cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, in 2018.
McCarrick was defrocked for allegedly sexually assaulting minors and seminarians.
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