“In this awakening, making investigations and moving ahead with accusations, everything has not always (and everywhere) been the same, some things have been hidden,” Francis said. “That is why we should not be surprised that cases like this come to light.”
“It is a process that we are undertaking, and we are carrying it out with courage, and not everyone has courage; sometimes there is the temptation to compromise, and we are also all slaves to our sins, but the will of the church is to clarify everything,” he said.
Francis has enacted a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, enforcing the mandatory reporting of abuse to authorities and making sexual abuse a criminal offense at the Vatican.
Only three cardinals have been officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church for sexual abuse. In 1995, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër stepped down as Archbishop of Vienna following numerous reports of sexual abuse but never underwent a canonical trial. Benedict prohibited Cardinal Keith O’Brien from participating in the 2013 conclave due to abuse allegations; two years later, Francis stripped O’Brien of his cardinal rights.
In 2019, Francis defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of abusing minors and seminarians.
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
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