"Pope St. John Paul II Knew about Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests and Sought to Conceal It": Pope SAINT John Paul II?

News outlets are now reporting that Polish television broadcaster TVN24 has just aired a report stating that "Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland." This statement is from Monika Scislowska in an AP report picked up by National Catholic Reporter with the title "Polish TV report: John Paul II knew of abuse as archbishop."

David Clohessy of SNAP Speaking Outside Southern Baptist Convention, Birmingham, Alabama, June 2019: How to Effect Real Change with Churches and Abuse

I'd like to share with readers a presentation that David Clohessy of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) made in June 2019 when the Southern Baptist Convention held its annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm grateful to David for permitting me to share it here, and to Carol Yeager of SNAP in North Carolina for sharing this video with me. 

SNAP to Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina: Nine Names Missing from Your List of Credibly Accused Clergy Need to Be Added

In January this year, I reported that after the Catholic bishop of Charlotte, North Carolina, Peter Jugis, and his diocese released a list of clergy credibly accused of having abused minors, survivors spoke out to say that the list Jugis released was incomplete. The January 2020 posting to which I have just pointed you provides an excerpt of a statement SNAP made on 30 December 2019, which states the following:

Catholic officials in Charlotte, NC have finally followed in the footsteps of the vast majority of dioceses around the country and released a list of priests accused of abuse. Unfortunately, the list released today is incomplete and leaves off allegations related to other church staffers. We call on them to update this list immediately in order to provide a clearer and more complete look at abuse within the Diocese of Charlotte.

Ruth Krall, Moral Corruption in the Religious Commons (2)

Theodore Rombouts, (1597-1617), "Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple"

The essay below is the second installment of Ruth Krall's essay "Moral Corruption in the Religious Commons." Part one was published previously. In this essay, which is the sixth of a series of essays Ruth has entitled "Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice," whose premise is (to quote the essay below), "Studies of sexual violence inside our denominational homes require new vocabularies and new conceptual models." 

In this current essay, Ruth argues, "If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to repeatedly enable sexual abuse of that same child." But also: "Remember this: it takes only one of us to be a healer."

The continuation of Ruth's essay on moral corruption in the religious commons follows (note that endnote numbers begin at xx because this is the second part of an essay whose first part has previously been published):

Where's Solidarity When You Need It? Letting Off a Bit of Steam

I don't need this.

Today, I shared on Facebook the following statement by Rev. Andrew Foreshew-Cain from a Guardian interview published online today:

SNAP Holds Media Event in Charlotte: Bishop Peter Jugis Endangering Children by Refusing to List Names of Predator Priests

An update for you about the continuing refusal of the Catholic diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, to release a list of names of predator priests who have served in that diocese — even after the second in command in that diocese, Monsignor Mauricio West, stepped down from his position as chancellor last week (and here) after the diocesan review board found credible allegations that he sexually abused a student at Belmont Abbey College when he was Vice-President for Student Affairs there in the 1980s.

Michael Iafrate on How Jurisdictional Mentality Protects Abusive Priests by Hiding Cross-Diocesan Connections in Lists of Abusive Priests

This is a follow-up/companion piece to what I posted two days ago about lists of priests credibly accused of abusing minors which are now being compiled and published by many Catholic dioceses* across the U.S. (and by some religious orders). As I noted in that posting, as more and more Catholic dioceses (and some religious communities) release names of priests credibly accused of abusing minors, it's important that we monitor those lists to spot "cross-pertinent" information that may be omitted from any given list. In many cases, priests named in one place have also had pastoral assignments in other places.

As Catholic Dioceses Release Lists of Priests Credibly Accused of Abuse of Minors, Important Things to Watch for: The Case of Arkansas

As more and more U.S. Catholic dioceses — but not the diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, which remains "one of the least transparent" dioceses in the nation — release names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors, I am following those lists to see if I spot names of priests with connections to my diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas. I'm doing this, in part, because I think it's important that we inform ourselves of what's happening in our own back yard as we talk about bigger problems that manifest themselves in more than one place in the world. I also want to note that others who are monitoring these lists have been very generous in pointing me to important Arkansas-themed information in them: this is not a project I'm undertaking all on my own, but a collaborative one.

Front Page News Today in Charlotte, North Carolina: "PRIESTS ACCUSED OF SEX ABUSE — The Charlotte Diocese Has Not Released Lists"

On the front page of today's Charlotte Observer: a headline reading, "PRIESTS ACCUSED OF SEX ABUSE," with a notice that the Catholic diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, still has not released names of priests credibly accused of child sex abuse. The headline points readers to an article inside the front section of the paper that appeared several days ago in the online copy of the paper, but is being published in the print-media copy for the first time for today's Sunday edition. 

U.S. Catholic Bishops Meet for Prayer-and-Repentance Confab: Some Valuable Responses

DiNardo, who is credibly accused of declining to report abuse in his own diocese, is currently US Bishops president. @pontifex’s entire effort means nothing unless every prelate who enabled a priest to assault a child is removed. #TheFishRotsFromTheHeadhttps://t.co/TTe5q5JgDL

— Indie Theology (@IndieTheology) January 4, 2019

As the American Catholic bishops meet in Chicago for their prayer-and-repentance confab, here are some responses/commentary I have read in the last day or so that catch my eye, and which I want to pass on to you:

Abuse of Vulnerable People and Churches: Recent Reports, from Baptists to Nuns Raped by Bishops and Priests to Jesuits to a German Princess Saving the Church

This is a collection of reports on the abuse situation as it is unfolding in various churches now. These are all recent statements, and not by any means a representative report on all that is happening on the sexual abuse front in religious groups right now. Stories are breaking on that front fast and furious — this is only my own selection of reports that have drawn my attention recently, for reasons that will be apparent as you read:

As More U.S. Catholic Diocesan Offices Are Searched by Police, Reports Continue That Lists of Abusive Priests Released by Bishops Are Incomplete

Two days ago, I wrote, 

One bishop after another is claiming that there have not been cases of abuse in his diocese for years now, and the lists being released are almost entirely names of priests who have been dead for some time. Many survivors are pointing out that they can testify that the lists being released are not complete, since they personally known of priests whose names are not on the lists being released.

Abuse Survivors Speak Out: Viganò Is "Just a Fanatic Who Blames Gays" — More on What Viganò's Attack Is Really About

SNAP, Survivors Denounce Archbishop Viganò’s Statements Conflating Homosexuality and Sexual Violence by Clergy

SNAP's position on what Viganò and his cabal are doing creates more than a tiny wrinkle for that cabal, doesn't it? Supposedly, they're all about addressing the sexual crimes of clergy and of the hierarchy, to assist survivors. Their proposed purge of gay priests and members of the hierarchy is premised wholly on the claim that they want to deal with the abuse horror show.

More Commentary on Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, as Vatican Sends Thoughts and Prayers

Elizabeth Bruenig, "Evil walked the earth in Pennsylvania":

That there should be mass defrockings is obvious. That there should also be a swath of criminal convictions also seems beyond question….Evil is real, and it walked the earth in Pennsylvania. It entered through our church doors.

Revisiting Cahill and Wilkinson's Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church As Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report Is Released

Dallas Morning News, June 2002

This is a posting from this blog dated 20 October 2017 that I'd like to re-post this morning, as we wait for the Pennsylvania grand jury report to be made public. When Cahill and Wilkinson's Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church was published last year, it was widely applauded as the most comprehensive report ever published on this subject. In recommending the Cahill-Wilkinson study  with that assessment, the noted authority on the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic church Kieran Tapsell also stated that this study is of paramount importance because of the attention it directs to the systemic causes of the abuse crisis in the Catholic church.

Ruth Krall, "Reflections Vis-à-vis Today’s SNAP": A Guest Posting — "Onus Is on the Newly Configured SNAP Board to Move into Transparency with All of Its Members"

As longtime Bilgrimage readers will know, I've been a longtime supporter of the group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). I've persistently defended SNAP when some of its detractors came to this site to attack the organization and its leaders and work. Like Ruth (but not to such a great extent, I suspect, as in Ruth's case), I've contributed financially to SNAP. I've also very gladly assisted in SNAP's work in a variety of ways, when I have been called on to do so. 

It's the Clericalism, Stupid: Valuable Commentary on How Pope Francis' Approach to the Abuse Situation Is Undermining His Papacy

“They Have No Intention of Changing”: An Interview with Sex Abuse Expert on Pope’s Fierce Defense of Accused Bishop https://t.co/9rWapfrfSp

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) January 20, 2018

These are some valuable things I've read in the past few days about Pope Francis' atrocious comments regarding the Bishop Barros story in Chile, and his subsequent attempt to walk back those comments. As survivors like Joelle Casteix, Marie Collins, and Skip Shea point out, the men in Rome — including Francis — don't get it, and don't intend to get it. It's the clericalism. It always has been the clericalism. Clericalism is and always has been at the very root of the abuse crisis.

Cahill and Wilkinson's Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: "Most Comprehensive Report Ever Published on the Systemic Reasons Behind Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church"

Several days ago, when I blogged about Desmond Cahill and Peter Wilkinson's study Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports, I told you I planned to say a bit more about this ground-breaking study after I had read it thoroughly. My previous posting looked at one of the systemic roots of the abuse crisis in the Catholic church: how the encyclical Humanae Vitae has undermined the credibility of any official Catholic teaching about human sexuality by ignoring the wisdom of lay Catholics as it seeks to impose, from the top down and with no consultation of lay Catholic experience, a ban on contraception widely rejected by the laity. 

Catholic-Themed News: Nienstedt at Napa, Chaput and Amoris Laetitia, Joe Paterno and What He Knew, Violence of Catholic Teaching about LGBTQ People

Brother Body can be a real ass sometimes, can't he? I'm dealing with some health things right now, and finding it hard to concentrate on blogging. Please forgive the "lightness" of this posting, which is more or less a list of Catholic-themed news items or commentary I'd like to report to you, as I work on encouraging Brother Body to stop being so much of a donkey to me.

Daily Beast on Jeyapaul Story: "This May Be the Worst Case We’ve Ever Seen. What Does a Priest Have to Do to Get Kicked Out of the Catholic Church?"

Noting that the Vatican has placed convicted rapist Father Joseph Jeyapaul back into a parish, Barbie Latza Nadeau (and Daily Beast) write,