Speaking to young Catholics at an open-air Mass on Sunday in Toronto, Pope John Paul II broached a subject that has been on the minds of the faithful of all ages: the sexual abuse of minors by a destructive minority of Catholic clergymen.
"The harm done by some priests and religious to the young and vulnerable fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame," the pope said. "But think of the vast majority of dedicated priests and religious whose only wish is to serve and do good."
Some activists representing the victims of sexual abuse faulted the pope for accentuating the positive, and for not extending his condemnation to bishops who covered up abuse and sometimes transferred abusing priests to new assignments.
But the bishops of the United States, who were responsible for such malfeasance, already have confessed to that offense. In June, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Illinois, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, declared: "We are the ones, whether through ignorance or lack of vigilance, or God forbid, with knowledge, who allowed priest abusers to remain in ministry and reassigned them to communities where they continued to abuse."
Nothing the pope could have said could have improved on that acceptance of responsibility. But what the pope does could make a difference. In adopting a policy of removing abusive priests from ministry, the U.S. bishops' conference noted that "these norms, after approval by the Apostolic See, constitute particular law for all the diocese/eparchies of the United States of America."
It is vital that such approval be granted by the Vatican, where some of the pope's advisers are known to be unenthusiastic about the American bishops' tough line. That action would speak louder than any words spoken or left unsaid by the pope in Toronto.
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