The Vatican’s doctrinal chief has dismissed accusations that Vatican officials are resisting recommendations on best practices for protecting children from clergy sex abuse.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said: “I think this cliché must be put to an end: the idea that the Pope, who wants the reform, is on one side and, on the other, a group of resisters who want to block it.”
The congregation is charged with carrying out canonical trials and seeking justice for victims, while local bishops and heads of religious orders must care for pastoral needs, he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Cardinal Müller was responding to complaints by Marie Collins, who resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors last week, citing what she described as resistance from Vatican offices. In a statement, Collins said an unnamed dicastery refused to cooperate on the commission’s safeguarding guidelines or respond to letters from victims.
Cardinal Müller said Ms Collins’s accusations were “based on a misunderstanding” and that bishops and religious superiors “who are closer” to victims of clergy sex abuse are responsible for their pastoral care. “When a letter arrives, we always ask the bishop that he take pastoral care of the victim, clarifying that the congregation will do everything possible to do justice,” he said. “It is a misunderstanding that this dicastery, in Rome, can be aware of everything happening in all the dioceses and religious orders in the world.”
“All of our collaborators humanly suffer with the victims of abuse. Our task is to do everything possible to avoid further crimes,” the cardinal said.
Read the Bible as often as you check your phone, urges Pope
Christians should care about reading God’s messages in the Bible as much as they care about checking messages on their mobile phones, Pope Francis has said.
As Christ did in the desert when tempted by Satan, men and women can defend themselves from temptation with the word of God if they “read it often, meditate on it and assimilate it” into their lives, he said before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday.
“What would happen if we turned back when we forget it, if we opened it more times a day, if we read the messages of God contained in the Bible the way we read messages on our mobiles?” the Pope asked the crowd.
His reflection centred on the day’s Gospel reading in which Jesus is tempted by the Devil while fasting in the desert for 40 days and nights.
Jesus deflects “the poisonous arrows of the devil” not with his own words but “only with the Word of God”.
Christians, the Pope continued, are called to follow in Jesus’s footsteps and “confront the spiritual combat against the evil one” through the power of God’s word, which has the “strength to defeat Satan”.
Cardinal: try to protect migrants
The Archbishop of Chicago has told priests they should not allow immigration officers onto Church property without a warrant. “If they do not have a warrant and it is not a situation that someone is in imminent danger, tell them politely they cannot come on the premises,” Cardinal Blase Cupich wrote in a letter. But he said he could not declare churches “sanctuaries” as this would offer immigrants false hope. President Donald Trump has promised mass expulsion of illegal immigrants.
Russian Catholics face last battle for survival
A world gathering of Russian Catholics in June has been hailed as the last chance to ensure the movement’s survival.
The tiny Eastern Catholic Church, formed in the 19th century, is in danger of being lost to history, according to the organiser of the summit, Fr Lawrence Cross, an Australia-based Russian Catholic priest.
“We have saints and martyrs, many dead in the gulags and shot for their Russian Catholic faith. I can’t believe that was all in vain,” said Fr Cross.
“This is our last hurrah. If this fails, you can forget about the Russian Catholic movement,” he said.
Thirty clerical delegates from Russian Catholic communities across the world, as well as laity, will meet in Seriate, just outside Bergamo in Italy, to discuss their future and once again petition Rome for an exarch, or bishop, and the revival of the Russian Catholic Exarchate.
The Church began with the writings of mystic Vladimir Soloviev, known as the “Newman of Russia”, who spoke out against the unhealthy relationship between the Orthodox Church and the state. He saw that the only way to end the corruption in Moscow was for the Orthodox Church to find a point of reference for unity and freedom outside itself. This guardian of freedom was Rome.
Fr Cross said Russian Catholics were today a “rebuke” to the Orthodox Church “for allowing itself to become a department of the state”.
Fr Cross said that for the Church to survive, it needed an above-ground presence in Russia, free of the interference imposed by the Vatican, which has placed the clergy under unsympathetic Latin Rite Catholic bishops.
“Otherwise it becomes a museum piece,” he said. He explained that he has tried to plead his case with the Vatican. In September 2015, he put a letter in the hands of Pope Francis, outlining the plight of the tiny Church, faithful to Rome.
“The letter ends with two words: Salva nos [save us],” he said.
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