In his strongest words yet on the Church’s sexual-abuse crisis, Pope Francis on Friday called on priests who have sexually abused minors to turn themselves in to civil authorities and promised that the Church will “never” take allegations of abuse lightly again.
“To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,” the pope said in his Christmas address to the Vatican Curia.
“The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case,” Francis vowed. “It is undeniable that some in the past, out of irresponsibility, disbelief, lack of training, inexperience, or spiritual and human short-sightedness, treated many cases without the seriousness and promptness that was due. That must never happen again.”
Francis has been excoriated by large swaths of the Church for his tepid response to new, shocking revelations over the past year that thousands of priests abused minors and adult seminariansand that certain Church leaders, including possibly Francis himself, covered up their crimes.
When asked in August if he knew about the allegations of abuse against minors and seminarians committed by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Francis said, “I will not say a single word on this,” and told reporters to “make your own judgment.”
Investigations in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Australia, Germany, Chile, and other places have turned up thousands of priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Francis referenced a February summit at the Vatican, which aims, he said, to determine “how best to protect children, to avoid these tragedies, to bring healing and restoration to the victims, and to improve the training imparted in seminaries.” The pope also thanked members of the media for helping to expose abuse, chiding those who have accused the media of using the stories to smear the Church, calling the crisis a “scourge.”
“I myself would like to give heartfelt thanks to those media professionals who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims’ voices heard,” he said. “The Church asks that people not be silent but bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth.”
The pope quoted the gospel of Matthew, which reads: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”