Church leaders from around the world were summoned by the Pope to the Vatican over the weekend for a summit to discuss how the church can prevent any future abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. This is the first time a Pope has brought together church leaders to directly address the legacy of pervasive abuse of minors within the church.
The Pope called for an “all-out battle" on clergy sex abuse during Mass on Sunday. Despite taking a conciliatory and repentant tone, the Pope, nor the church, offered any concrete initiatives that would address the problems of predatory priests that have plagued young churchgoers for millennium.
"The concrete actions will come later in what's called a 'motu proprio,' which is a document that they said the pope is going to issue later on," Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of America Magazine, told NPR.
Read more: Pope Calls For 'All-Out-Battle' On Clergy Sex Abuse, With Few Specifics
Reverend Irene Monroe, a syndicated religion columnist and visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology, and Reverend Emmett Price, the founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, joined Boston Public Radio Monday to talk about the summit and discuss their views on if the church can ever be redeemed.
Price called the Pope’s speech on Sunday “horrible.” He told BPR that before any constructive change can take place, the Pope needs to remove statute of limitations, yield to secular law, reveal all the names of people who are suspected of committing abuse, and “then the pope must leave,” Price said.
Monroe called the church “irredeemable” and pointed to the lackluster summit and the church’s inability to police themselves as exemplifying the institutional problems that permit abuse to continue. “What are we doing? We are asking the same people who have perpetuated the issue to police themselves. That’s the problem there,” she said.
