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"I am not surprised" by the new reports of abuse.

"I do not think it will stop soon and, at the same time, I think it is necessary and should be seen in the framework of evolving a more consistent practice of accountability," said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a professor of psychology and president of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

"I know that people are deeply angry and they are losing their trust — this is understandable.

That is normal, humanly speaking," he told Catholic News Service Aug. 7 as newspapers were filled with information and commentary about the case of retired Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, misconduct in a Nebraska seminary and the pending release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse.

The courage of survivors to speak out, the investigative work of both police and church bodies, the implementation of child protection measures and improved screening of potential seminarians, church workers and volunteers mean that children and vulnerable adults are safer today.

Pennsylvania not the end

But, as Father Zollner has been saying for years, that does not mean accusations of past abuse will stop coming out, and it does not guarantee there will never again be a case of abuse or sexual misconduct.

Dealing with the reality of potential abuse and the history of clerical sexual abuse in the church is a process, he said.

"We see that people were first speaking out about the misbehavior of priests and now it's bishops, so there is a development there.

"I am not surprised, and I do not think it will stop soon."

Something new

After Archbishop McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals and was ordered to live a life of prayer and penance pending a church trial, many U.S. bishops began speaking publicly of devising a process to review accusations made against bishops.

Father Zollner agreed that is a good idea, but he believes it must be part of "a new way of coming together as the people of God" and taking responsibility for the church.

To make that happen, he said, "we need to honestly look at what we can learn from the way society and companies function in terms of accountability, transparency and compliance."

"A church body investigating allegations needs to have as much independence as possible," Father Zollner said.

"When dealing with accusations against a bishop, there should be at least a mixed board — meaning some bishops and some independent lay persons.

If it is not possible to have a fully complete investigation by independent lay persons, there should be as many as possible and as experienced as possible.

Our canon lawyers are trained in legal procedures; they are not trained in investigation."

But the response must go far beyond setting up another new structure, he said. Continue reading

The shock waves this time came from substantiated sex abuse allegations that a well-known cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, a retired archbishop of Washington, had molested boys; he was forced to resign last month from the College of Cardinals.

Then came the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania detailing 70 years of horrific abuse by some 300 priests, too much of it facilitated by bishops.

It has all landed on the desk of the current pope, and the scandals have the potential to undermine the Francis pontificate.

It shouldn't.

Indeed, if Pope Francis lives up to his own words and actions, this could be a chance for him to advance his vision of church reform and turn a long-running crisis into an opportunity for long-term renewal.

This eruption was inevitable

At a historic meeting in Dallas in June 2002, American bishops agreed to a comprehensive set of policies designed to protect children and punish offending priests.

But with other observers, those of us in the media — the people regularly accused of trying to "bring down the church" — shook our heads as the bishops effectively exempted themselves from genuine oversight or discipline for failing in their jobs, the sin that truly scandalized the faithful.

Only Rome could investigate bishops, they said, and only the pope could punish them.

That wasn't likely.

The Vatican under John Paul II was not very keen on the United States hierarchy's new policy against priests, and the pontiff certainly didn't want to throw his own bishops under the bus.

Now the scandal has even some of John Paul's staunchest fans questioning the wisdom of his canonization in 2014, and it bedeviled Pope Benedict up to his stunning 2013 resignation.

A Church living in itself, of itself, for itself

In closed-door meetings on the eve of the conclave that elected him in March 2013, Pope Francis — then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires — gave a brief, powerful address in which he said the church needed to open up or risk becoming

• "self-referential" and
• "sick" with
• "theological narcissism" that leads to the worst evil,
• "spiritual worldliness" of an institution that is "living in itself, of itself, for itself."

The church, he was saying, had to undergo a moment of kenosis, of self-emptying, like Christ on the cross, surrendering power and prestige and privilege in order to truly become what she is called to be.

As pope, he has saved his harshest rhetoric for his fellow clerics, especially the cardinals and bishops, criticizing them as "careerists" and "airport bishops" who spend more time flying around the world than tending their flock.

"Clericalism is a perversion of the church," Pope Francis told 70,000 young Italian Catholics at a rally this month. "The church without testimony is only smoke."

Pope Francis' vision of the church is clearly more radical than the defensive posture of John Paul or the nostalgic traditionalism of Benedict. But is he willing and able to implement it? Continue reading

• David Gibson (pictured) is the director of the Centre on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.

The 147-page grand jury report came uncovered a "secret archive" of evidence stuffed into boxes and filing cabinets in a church office in the central Pennsylvania diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Handwritten notes, letters and documents detail children being abused by members of the church, and show that Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor Bishop Joseph Adamec, 80, knew of the allegations and intervened to stop predatory priests from being arrested.

Pennsylvania state attorney general Kathleen Kane said the bishops' conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed predators to abuse even more victims.

Among the 115,042 documents impounded by investigators were handwritten notes by Hogan, documents sent to Adamec, statements from victims and correspondence with offending priests.

Hogan was bishop of the diocese from 1966 to 1986, when he was succeeded by Adamec, 80, who retired in 2011.

"These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe," Kane said in a statement.

"Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades."

No criminal charges are being filed in the case because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatized to testify, she said.

Sources

AP/The Guardian
AFP/The Daily Star
Image: Reuters/The Guardian