Pope To Sex Abuse Victims: 'I Beg Your Forgiveness'

[denem]

Source: Huffington Post

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has begged forgiveness from the victims of clergy sex abuse in his first meeting with several abuse survivors.

The Vatican quoted Francis as expressing personal "sorrow" in his homily at a private Mass with six victims Monday for the "sins and grave crimes" of clerical sex abuse against them.

Added the pope: "I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves."

"This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it endangered other minors who were at risk," the pope said, according to the English translation of his homily, delivered in Spanish.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/pope-sex-abuse-victims_n_5563244.html

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Too little IMO, and probably too late. The most charitable thing I can say is, it would have been somewhat gratifying to see John Paul II or Ratzinger 'begging', preferably on a puddle of filth.

[rurallib]

1. I posted this on another thread on this

Ya know, the only thing I ever wanted was a fucking apology

one fucking apology. I never wanted to be in a lawsuit, I never wanted to have some spooky priest talk about forgiveness and love and all sorts of voodoo shit. All I ever wanted was an apology from the fucking diocese that hired the SOB that molested me. A fucking call or even an email.

But we know that would have been admitting guilt and thus weaken their court position as they tried anything they could to worm their way out of their crap. A general "I am sorry" from the pope 20 years later is way too little way too late. I am still waiting, still waiting. Most likely I will die waiting.

"We are sorry we let this man free to molest kids. We are very sorry it happened to you. We are late to do this but we are working very hard to make sure it never happens again." Would that have been so hard?
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I get so pissed when I read some hierarchy who thinks they can kiss the booboo and make it all better. too little too late is an understatement. Every diocese should be seeking out victims and apologizing, not just the diocese that got caught. And they should quit fight the lawsuits and admit guilt.

[denem]

2. I was educated in an all boys Catholic School.

As far as I know, no child was abused while I was there. My friends and I have spoken about it many times. I can't comprehend the injuries of those who were abused. I am so sorry. As long as the Church demonises homosexuals, projecting their self hatred, there can't be forgiveness, in any meaningful sense. Sin is raping children, not marrying those blessed with commitment.

[GeorgeGist]

3. The Hobby Lobotomy ...

is your reward, Francis.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Turn loose all the evidence you are hiding

deport Bernard Law back to the U.S.

Defrock all abusers and their protectors including your predecessor and his predecessor (posthumously).

Then we will talk "forgiveness".

[Liberalynn]

5. This apology was owed and long overdue

I also think the Catholic Church should apologize to those of us they beat and belittled in the cause of "teaching humility and obedience," in the schools run by their church. It taught me extreme fear and extreme mistrust" of religion and humanity in general. So far years of therapy hasn't been able to undue the self loathing fostered by them in me.

Admittedly not every Catholic School practiced it but some did. Admittedly as well it isn't as heinous as sexual abuse but prolonged physical and verbal abuse such as some of the Catholic Schools like mine did practice left lasting scars on the victims.

I want them to denounce Corporeal punishment now and forever so no other child has to face that either at their hands. Especially now that the SCOTUS is going to start letting favored groups opt out of laws on a religious basis.

[SouthernLiberal]

11. I agree - there is more than sexual abuse in Catholic Church and schools

Both of my brothers were beaten. The older had a teacher who regularly beat students hard enough to break the metal yardsticks he preferred to use - on elementary school children.

My younger brother had been in an accident that fractured his skull, and warned quite severely about activities that could involve blows to the head. So not only did his teachers choose to strike him in the head, at least one got some pleasure out of warning him not to upset her again, or she would break his skull open again. And yes, they know about his accident and the health warnings. I think he had an ulcer by second grade.

I got only emotional abuse. I was very tall for my age, and after first grade carried some extra weight. The teachers seemed to prefer to use physical abuse on smaller children. I was made fun of for my size (not just the weight, but the height) I was scolded for doing too well on tests, but if I did not excel at something, I was told it endangered a recently deceased relative's immortal soul. I had one teacher, who upon realizing that my mother's sister was a principal at a nearby school, decided that I must have been telling my aunt lies about how badly she treated me, and handed out more abuse because of that. When she learned that I had never told, the abuse increased again, because I had 'tricked' her into thinking I done so.

It is too late to apologize to my older brother. But I am sure there are many more than just my family who had issues for years and years after school as a result of this kind of abuse.

The church owes much more to those who were sexually abused, of course, but I hope this Pope will realize that apologies to those who were raped by priests and teachers is not the end of undoing generations of harm, but only the beginning.

[Liberalynn]

12. I am so sorry about what happened to your brothers and you.

There is no excuse for what they did to any of you especially your brother with the head injury. My sixth grade teacher(she was a lay-teacher they hired) once slammed one boy's head into the black board so hard he had to be sent to the ER. He was bleeding out of his ear and had passed out. She was fired finally for this incident. She routinely used to pick some of us out and make us stand up in front of the whole class and list what she considered faults in our character. She told one boy he was lucky his father was wealthy and he was handsome because he was thicker than a brick and would never amount to anything on his own. She said of me that God gave me many gifts but I was going to waste them all because I had the courage of a mouse and was destined to be a doormat for the rest of my life.

My kindergarten teacher beat me across my bare back until I had bleeding welts with a ruler, made me stand hunched over in a coat cubby- hole, and told the whole class they were to call me the "giggler" instead of my given name. This was for one incidence of behavior mind you. My crime: I laughed at the boy across from me who made a funny face when she was speaking. She never even asked me to stop just started beating. My parents complained about the physical beating but left me there, so the school just made sure to double down on the emotional abuse.

I was told I was illegitimate because my dad had been divorced from his first wife instead of annulled, which in their eyes made his second marriage to my mother invalid. They also told me I was going to he'll because my first name wasn't in the bible. I was five years old at the time.

There was more but those were some of the highlights. I attended from kindergarten to 8th grade.

The thing is it isn't just what they did to me but what I saw them do to my classmates. My first grade teacher a nun refused to let a boy use the bathroom when he asked. He then had an accident on the floor for which she proceeded to beat and mock him for.

Everyone tells me to forgive and forget but it sure would be easier if the Church ever once said it was sorry for allowing this to go on in their schools and that they were wrong.

My Mom did say she was sorry and that she never should have left me or my sister there until 8th grade when we got to go to the public high school.

[closeupready]

6. Underwhelming. Children's lives were destroyed.

Stop lobbying state legislative bodies to shorten the statute of limitations on pedophilia cases, and then Catholics can take the Vatican seriously.

Until then, they will continue to lose influence, money, and members.

[leftyohiolib]

7. where are our usual pope-bashers?

"Too little IMO, and probably too late.." my guess is that this what most our our religion-haters will say. people scream for the pope to addres this and when he does they say meh too little too late. i think it shows an agenda .

[denem]

8. I'm no Pope basher,

far from it. What I believe is the Catholic Church should vacate preaching on sexual morality, the sooner the better. Pope Francis has turned the Chruch's attention to poverty, inequality and social justice - where it belongs, out of the bedroom.

[leftyohiolib]

9. i wasnt to you that i was refering

[joshcryer]

13. This apology is meaningless without releasing internal documents.

Until then it's nothing.

[NYC Liberal]

14. If criticizing an anti-gay, anti-choice, misogynist bigot is "bashing", so be it.

I will not shut up and I will not stop criticizing someone who supports right-wing policies and who spews hate speech just because it's done in the name of religion. If I want to marry the love of my life, Francis considers that evil and thinks I am being deluded by Satan. If my partner and I want to adopt a child, Francis considers that child abuse.

If someone here criticizes Bush, do you denounce them as "Bush bashers"? If someone here criticizes right-wingers, do you call them "haters"? Francis doesn't get a pass on his bigotry just because his title is "pope" and not "senator".

[Dawson Leery]

15. If Francis was sincere, he would never have canonized you John Paul II.

The evil little putz gave the order to cover up the abuse.

http://www.thenation.com/article/160242/shame-john-paul-ii-how-sex-abuse-scandal-stained-his-papacy

Francis is not committed to handing over the perpetrators to the civil authorities either.

[bklyncowgirl]

10. The first step in dealing with a problem is admitting that there is a problem, the secound is action

Pope Francis admits there is a problem and that it is destroying his church. That is good.

Now on to step two. Let's see strong policies with mandatory reporting of all allegations to the police and mandatory dismissal and handing over for prosecution of any school principal, priest, bishop, cardinal who is charged with covering up these crimes before we talk forgiveness.

It may be that Francis is moving this way. I hope so. I expect that this will not be tolerated in the future.

The pope seems to realize that it is impossible for a church to speak from a position of moral authority while harboring men who protected child rapists and that is good. The best way to show that he means business would be to fire and handover some of those guilty of covering up these monsters to civil authorities and let the law take its course.

[Orsino]

17. Typically, there is no step 2.

I believe that the Church will continue fighting all such cases, conceding nothing that would hit its bank accounts.

Will there be real reform where the rubber meets the road? Where priests interact with youngsters, and where the hierarchy deals with molesting priests?

[closeupready]

18. Correct, there will be no Step 2.

If an attempt at Step 2 is done, it will likely be only AFTER all those currently accused of either pedophilia or harboring pedophiles have passed away before the church drops many timeworn tactics of obfuscation, but then objects that, "we are 100% willing to cooperate, but there are no surviving witnesses, unfortunately."

You know, this religious institution has been around a long time, but it hasn't been around even HALF as long as the cult of Isis and even THAT cult came to an end, so the suggestions I've seen here and elsewhere that it will survive this scandal are certainly not clear, IMO.

[bklyncowgirl]

19. You're right. When it comes down to money, it is hard to do the right thing.

There will always be adults in position of authority taking advantage of children. You see it in all religions, schools, police forces, etc.

The problem in the Catholic Church has been that with its top down, preserve the reputation of the Church at all cost leadership ethic, its penchant for secrecy and it's pathologically unhealthy attitude to sexuality of any sort, the leaders of the Church have allowed this to fester to the point where it has destroyed any moral authority they might once have had. Some of them might be delusional enough to think that they could keep it up forever.

As for putting some of these enablers on trial and handing them over, from what I understand about Vatican politics, that is going to be very difficult even if Pope Francis wants it to happen. The Pope can lay down the law all he wants but these laws must be carried out by Bishops and Cardinals. Each of these enabler has supporters, many of the appointees of the past two popes who saw strict adherence to doctrine as the only thing which mattered. Some might even believe in their hearts that sex is sex and a grievous sin whether the partner is a consenting adult or a child.

Change will take a long time. It may never happen.

[closeupready]

16. What prompted this statement? Do they get much hate mail?

I was thinking last night, the Vatican must get a large amount of communications from those who were sexually and physically abused by priests, nuns, and others in the hierarchy of the church - both in letter form and other forms.

I mean, a church as arch-conservative as the RCC never ever says anything without assessing in advance all the various implications of every word and every punctuation mark. So there must be some compelling reason why Francis has decided to attack this issue.