Pope Francis, the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, was elected in 2013 at the age of 76. He is known as someone who advocates mercy as one of the most important of God’s principles.
God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden; can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14). I think we too are the people who, on the one hand, want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, at times, like to find a stick to beat others with, to condemn others. And Jesus has this message for us: mercy. I think — and I say it with humility — that this is the Lord's most powerful message: mercy.
His vision of a merciful church is even applied to its worst offenders, priests who are accused of pedophilia. The case of an Italian priest is the most memorable. Mauro Inzoli received the pope's clemency and was later convicted by an Italian criminal court for his sex crimes against children aged 12-16. He is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him. Francis, in several cases, overruled the advice of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the case of Inzoli he reduced his sentence to penalties including a lifetime of penance and prayer and removal from public ministry instead of defrocking him.
In some cases the priests or their high-ranking friends appealed to Francis for clemency by citing the pope's own words about mercy in their petitions. "With all this emphasis on mercy ... he is creating the environment for such initiatives," the church official said, adding that clemency petitions were rarely granted by Pope Benedict XVI. In fact, he launched a tough crackdown during his 2005-2013 papacy and defrocked some 800 priests who raped and molested children.
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, in an attempt to justify the Pope’s refusal to fully punish pedophile priests in the name of “mercy,” said: “The Holy Father understands that many victims and survivors can find any sign of mercy in this area difficult. But he knows that the Gospel message of mercy is ultimately a source of powerful healing and of grace."
The weirdest excuse for offenders is the Pope’s statement saying that he believed sex abusers suffer from a "disease" — a medical term used by defense lawyers to seek mitigating factors in canonical sentences. Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor and founding member of Francis' sex-abuse advisory commission, told The Associated Press about abusers: "All who abuse have made a conscious decision to do so. Even those who are pedophiles, experts will tell you, are still responsible for their actions. They can resist their inclinations."
Many canon lawyers and church authorities argue that defrocking pedophiles can put society at greater risk because the church no longer exerts any control over them. Keeping the men in restricted ministry, away from children, at least enables superiors to exert some degree of supervision. But Collins said the church must also take into account the message that reduced canonical sentences sends to both survivors and abusers. "If there is seen to be any weakness about proper penalties, then it might well send the wrong message to those who would abuse," according to Collins. On the other side, victims can feel disappointment that their offenders were not properly punished.
Photo Credits: Irish Examiner
