It seems as if yet another damning letter has been uncovered, this time by a French Catholic news service. In this particular missive, written in 2001, a member of the Vatican hierarchy praises a bishop for covering up for a priest he knew had molested numerous boys.
It goes like this: in October 2000, Father René Bissey was sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexually molesting boys between 1989 and 1996. Bissey's bishop, Pierre Pican, knew of the abuse, but rather than report him and his deeds to French authorities, Pican sent Bissey for psychiatric treatment. Pican, himself, was subsequently sentenced to prison for three months for "failure to report a sex crime against a minor younger than 15 years old."
It was that sentence that caused Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos--at the time, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy--to write Bishop Pican a letter praising his actions in shielding the abusive priest:
"I congratulate you on not having reported a priest to the civil authorities. You have done well, and I rejoice at having an associate in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all the others bishops of the world, will have chosen prison rather than speaking out against his priest-son."
Castrillon Hoyos added that he would send a copy of the letter to the bishops' conferences "to encourage the brothers in the episcopate in this very delicate area."
To encourage protecting and hiding pedophiles.
Nicely done.
When the story broke, the Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi said Castrillon Hoyos' underscored the importance of the shift, early in 2001, to have all cases of priestly pedophilia fall under the jurisdiction of one Cardianl Ratzinger, who, this month, will celebrate five years as pope.
Lombardi took a cue from Project Runway designers and basically threw Castrillon Hoyos under the bus, by stating that his letter praising Bishop Pican "is another confirmation of how timely was the unification of the treatment of cases of sexual abuse of minors on the part of members of the clergy under the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." He said the move ensured "a rigorous and coherent management" of abuse cases.
Uh huh.
Until recent months when stories of more child molesting priests swept through Germany, Ireland, Australia and the United States. These new stories suggest that former Cardinal Ratzinger was slow to move against abusers when cases came before him from 1980 up through the early 2000s.
Of course, many who defend the pope have denounced those new claims, and point to the late Pope John Paul II's decision to consolidate all child sexual abuse cases under Ratzinger as evidence of Ratzinger's effectiveness on the issue. They say that since his election as pope on April 19, 2005, Benedict has continued to be vigilant. Yet his vigilance won't allow him to speak directly on the issue other than to claim the Catholic church is being attacked.
The Vatican, trying to spin itself out of the scandal, has a newly published guideline on its website which offers a list of papal statements and documents aimed at proving that the church has been active in handling child molestation claims, including a guide to understanding Vatican procedures on dealing with abusive priests that, for the first time, explicitly stated that abusers who have committed crimes should be reported to the civil authorities.
For.The.First.Time.
In the real world, pedophiles don't get a second chance. We don't help them with psychiatric treatment; we don't relocate them to a new position in a different town. We don't cast blame for their actions of an Innocent group. They are arrested, tried, and, if found guilty, punished.
It's a shame that the Catholic church has taken so long to join the rest of us in dealing with these heinous crimes.
No matter how they choose to spin it, the church and its' leaders are responsible. They know that, hence the push to delay the inevitable, taking responsibility fro actions the church did or did not take.
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