More recently, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was accused of sexually abusing seminarians and was eventually found guilty by a court in his native country of Argentina in 2022 and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. Francis ordered a church trial, but the results were never disclosed, and gave Zanchetta a job at the Vatican in 2020.
In December, the case of the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit artist accused of abusing adult religious sisters, underlined once again Francis’ incoherent record on abuse. Rupnik was expelled from the Jesuit order, but the Vatican’s process lacked transparency.
Even the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Francis created to advise him on questions of abuse, pointed to “tragically harmful deficiencies in the norms intended to punish abusers and hold accountable those whose duty is to address wrongdoing,” in a statement Wednesday.
“Every day seems to bring forth new evidence of abuse, as well as cover up and mishandling by Church leadership around the world,” the commission’s statement read.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors asked the synod’s participants that they set time aside to finally address the question of sex abuse in hopes of one day creating a church with “appropriate safety policies and procedures, ones that are known and verified.”
But its statement admitted: “That day is yet to arrive. And for many it seems a long way away.”
This article originally appeared here.
