Courtney McGrailBoston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has spoken to Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinal Advisers about accountability for bishops who mishandle cases of clerical abuse, according to Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi.
Explaining that there had not been a formal presentation on the issue, Fr Lombardi said, “ the theme is explicitly, let's say, on the table of the C9, and the intention is now to find a way to proceed in the deepening of the competence in these cases”.
Cardinal O’Malley introduced the topic after meeting members of a working group from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which he chairs. The commission members, including Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins, were concerned by the appointment to a diocesan role of a Chilean bishop accused of concealing and denying the reality of abuse.
Acknowledging that the issue of accountability is one that is often raised, such that “the matter of the bishop of Osorno wasn’t necessary” to have brought it to the fore, Fr Lombardi said the council spoke specifically about “abuse of office, of neglect of responsibility” by Church leaders who improperly handled abuse allegations, with such leaders including priests, bishops, and religious superiors.
American women’s leaders group not being investigated
The Holy See has announced the end of an investigation of America’s principle group for leaders of women’s religious orders.
In 2008, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) had announced a doctrinal investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), shortly afterwards launching a parallel review of all United States’ women’s orders because of reports that “a certain secularist mentality” has spread among them. Four years later, the CDF accused the LCWR of having allowed views with “serious theological, even doctrinal errors,” and conferences featuring “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The Holy See appointed three bishops to overhaul the organisation.
Now, though, the Holy See has ended its investigation without substantial sanctions, although the LCWR has agreed to promote more scholarly rigor and theological accuracy in its writings and programs.
Sister Sharon Holland, president of the LCWR and a former Vatican official, said the process had brought “deeper understandings of one another’s experiences, roles, responsibilities, and hopes for the Church and the people it serves.”
The Vatican to host climate change conference
The Vatican is to host a major conference on climate change this month with an opening address from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The April 28 conference, will involve leading scientists of climate change as well as participants from major world religions and aims to “elevate the debate on the moral dimensions of protecting the environment “ in advance of Pope Francis’ coming encyclical on the environment, and to highlight “the intrinsic connection between respect for the environment and respect for people — especially the poor, the excluded, victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, children, and future generations.”
Among those addressing the conference will be leading American economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, which has played a key role in the drafting process for the Pope’s encyclical on the environment, which is expected this summer.
The summit and encyclical will come in advance of the Pope’s address to the U.N. General Assembly in September, when the Assembly is due to agree on a new set of sustainable development goals to run until 2030 and the subsequent Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris.