Pope Francis creating a child abuse scandal

Be careful what you ask for Pope Francis

Back in December 2016 the Pope told the world that bishops should enforce a zero tolerance policy for any priest who sexually abuses a child. The hidden truth is that Francis doesn’t treat all priests who abuse children equally.  Some are punished, some are not.  What happens depends on whether the priest has friends in high places.

According to Gilion Dumas, an Oregon attorney for abuse survivors: “In this Pope we have a master communicator who knows how to offer the right sound bite and the perfect photo-op. When the surface is scratched, the picture isn’t so pretty.” 

In an article published in The Week magazine, writer Michael Brendan Dougherty says that “cases of priestly abuse in Rome are now known to have two sets of distinctions. The first is guilty or innocent. The second is "with cardinal friends" or "without cardinal friends."  An example is a priest, Mauro Inzoli, accused of sexually  abusing children and defrocked by Pope Benedict in 2012. However, in 2014, Pope Francis restored Inzoli to the priesthood after Inzoli’s cardinal benefactors Cardinal Coccopalmerio and Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto both intervened on behalf of Inzoli. Pope Francis, reversing the defrocking, invited Inzoli to a "a life of humility and prayer."  I won’t bet that is what he has and will be doing while he is loose in the streets. Pedophiles are never cured, but what does Francis care?  His clergy buddies are more important.

Dougherty couldn’t believe that after giving in to the unjust requests by Coccopalmerio and Pinto that the pope then handed over authority for some child abuse cases to Pinto.  So Francis thinks that a pedophile enabler like Pinto is a good choice to protect children.  That makes Francis the chief enabler and the enemy of the children.

Civil authorities tried Inzoli, convicting him of only eight offenses because another 15 crimes hit the statute of limitations wall. Civil authorities knew what was going on with the old boy network and slammed the church for their dishonesty. The Italian press hammered the Vatican, specifically the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), for not sharing the information they had found in their own trial. “Of course, the pope himself could have allowed the CDF to share this information with civil authorities if he so desired,” said Dougherty. But he didn’t.  Of course, the pope can’t be held in contempt of court.

Remember, it is not what Pope Francis says, it is what he does – and for the abused that is worse than nothing because he is putting criminals back on the streets.