Watchdog group cites Pope’s failures on abuse
March 16, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: A sex-abuse watchdog group has issued a public call for Pope Francis to release the names of bishops who have been investigated under the terms of Vos Estis.
In an open letter to the Pontiff, BishopAccountability.org said that he should be “honoring your repeated pledges of transparency on abuse.” The group’s leader, Ann Barrett Doyle, told reporters: “The Pope has repeatedly said he wants transparency, yet he is leaving the faithful in the dark.”
Barret Doyle said that Vos Estis, the 2019 document that promised to hold bishops accountable for their failure to address abuse, had failed to provide any assurances to the faithful. “It’s self-policing packaged as accountability,” she said. “It is bishops watching bishops.”
The group also said that bishops found guilty of negligence had not been adequately punished. Their statement criticized Pope Francis on that score, noting: “In the past four years, you have not deprived one complicit or abusive church leader of his title, let alone his priesthood.”
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