Underwhelmed - The pope has set up a committee...

sunseeker thousands of cases of child abuse that have been made public are hardly "skeletons in the closet" - more like crimes they have deliberately covered up, appearing to be more concerned for the pastoral care of the perpetrators than the victim. It is hard for those of us who have not been brought up in a catholic culture to understand the power of priests in some parts of the world. I remember DH's uncle, who lived in the far west of Ireland, telling us about a parish priest who had been so popular that when he retired the congregation had clubbed together (and this is not an affluent part of the world) to buy him a new sports car. Later they heard that he was a serial abuser. This is the same part of the world where my MIL remembers visiting poor households as a nurse and seeing a little of their hard earned money put on the mantelpiece every week, to be given to the priest when he called round.
I'll grant you that Francis has managed to "brand" himself as a humble pope. But giving up the fancy frocks, red shoes and memory foam mattresses and presenting yourself as humble is not enough in the circumstances. I conclude only that he is good at marketing and PR - or has some good advisers in this area.
Let us not forget that there have been thousands of women who have been seduced by priests, impregnated (well they would be wouldn't they - contraception being the work of the devil) and abandoned.
And I have met men whose lives were seriously affected by the brutality of christian brothers in their boarding schools. Neither of these issues are mere skeletons in the cupboard either - although not actual crimes.

We know that accusations have been covered up and this is a criminal offence. Any enquiry needs to take as its starting point the referral to the police of any suspicious activities uncovered.

I think we should give Pope Francis time. The Catholic church has been in existence for so long it is bound to have skeletons in the closet! I have great hopes for this Pope as he really does seem to be a man of the people.

I heard a story the other day that he refuses to sleep in the chambers reserved for the Pope but prefers a simple monks cell. The day after his election he emerged from his cell to find a member of the Swiss Guard outside - he asked the guard if he had been there all night. When the man replied he had the Pope went away and returned with coffee and food for the guard. When the guard protested that the Pope should not be bringing him food Francis said with a smile "I'm the Pope I can do what I want"

I am not a catholic. I have been impressed by Pope Franics so far. The rumours about corruption of various kinds within the Vatican seem endless. He a new pope, finding his way in what sounds like a malfunctioning organisation. Where is the power in that vatican city. As others have said, the culture of silence, secrecy, denial around sexual abuse within the priesthood is so well established, it can't be easy to work out who your enemies may be. I wish Francis the best in his task. I have my fingers crossed that he he what he seems - a proper human being, more interested in people than riches. I hope that the power has been vested in a man with the strength of character and humanity, as well as faith, to move the catholic church into the 21 century as a more democratic, open institution.

Also, Education used to have its List 99 of known and alleged abusers, many not known to police in some areas, but it was a system for monitoring job applications, dismissals and resignations before CRB was compulsory.

It's only 25 years ago that we were struggling with confidentiality with some psychiatrists who would not disclose/expose abuse confided to them in treatment sessions. What a long way we have come since then. Progress needs to be modelled from the Vatican. Such a slow-grinding organisation it is, but this new broom might lead the way.

I think the issue is that the organisation has a number of features that are toxic:
Always been very hierarchical and very "top down" - i.e. autocratic - no representation of the normal members and they have no say in any significant issues. So it is like a company in which the management team does not listen to or consult either its junior members of staff, its shareholders or its customers. They just do what they think is right. And that includes the management pay and conditions of course. (Of course it makes sense for the MD to have his own private hospital - why wouldn't it be?)
It also has a culture of "protecting its reputation" rather than transparency. Hence all the cover ups of abuse around the world.
A measure of success would be bishops, all around the world, calling the local police and handing over priests to them for questioning about allegations of abuse, both recent and not so recent. (or has this been happening and I've missed it?)
Instead, child abuse is still being treated as an internal disciplinary issue.
So a direct comparison would be a local education authority that had a strict policy of any abuse by teachers being dealt with internally under the personnel policies and not referred to the police. Oh and just moving teachers between schools if there was a little problem.
So this policy having been made public, they set up a committee to talk about how they could be better.

It depends how his internal investigation is spear-headed. I was involved with one church and school where the priest took personal responsibility for seizing documents and other evidence to hand to the police because no-one had cooperated when police were invited in. He knew who was colluding with whom and that they wouldn't make disclosures in interview, so he had his own interviews, taped them and handed everything over. He subsequently left the church, but there were convictions because he found out information that was being kept from the authorities. If the pope selects priests who will expose abuse and reject influential pressure to conceal the evidence, he might just surprise us all.

Quite right, lily, but the police can investigate criminal allegations and rumour. In fact it's their job.

By initiating an internal investigation, Francis is not doing any of the things posters have accused him of. I believe the church policy is that allegations are now passed to the civil authorities. I think that's the case in most organisations now. I imagine this committee is designed to find out what has been going on, where and how it has been dealt with (worth saying, not the same way everywhere). A representative of the Methodist Church was recently asked why the church hadn't taken action against their errant minister and pointed out that you can't act on gossip and rumour, you have to have facts. That requires investigation. And it requires people to give evidence.

Child abuse is a legal issue and should be dealt with by the law. The vatican should indeed insist that all allegations be passed on to the police in the relevant countries.

The fact that the catholic church seems to be able to take soft options and get away with it is an enormous cause for concern.

Those bishops who fail and have failed to deal appropriately with such allegations should themselves be prosecuted.

There cannot be one law for the catholic church and another for everyone else.

Those poor poor children - my heart goes out to them all.

Well it all sounds a bit wooly to me. And it has taken him 9 months to set up a committee. So I would predict that in 9 years time they will still be wittering on about their pastoral responsibilities, consulting experts and won't have brought about any fundamental cultural changes at all.
My MIL had other issues with their last priest - but if anyone complained to the bishop about him, the complaint was sent straight to the priest to deal with.
I thought his predecessor should have said crawled a considerable distance on his belly wearing sackcloth and ashes, that would have been a start.

I won't be holding my breath.

Looking into is quite different from taking action.

The cynic in me thinks there may well be a silent Amnesty put in place for the countless old crimes, which I already think exists unofficially, whilst making loud noises about how changes will be made to prevent crimes such as these ever happening again.

Well done, that man! I hope he continues like this, despite the influences around him that won't want to cooperate with investigations.

Hand over all letters, files, etc on the cases to the police and have all the crimes properly investigated and people prosecuted. That would be the 'right' thing to do.

I expect he is praying as well. What do you think he ought to do?