Too little too late, Mister Pope

It is I, Francis, your shepherd. Hear me, I have spoken.

Great news, Catholics. This week in pedophilia, your very own Pope Francis wrote you a nice letter. A letter too long coming, a letter strong on intention, a letter too weak on real-world action.

As reported by BBC, His Holiness penned the message after a sharp kick in the ass from the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, when a grand jury there issued a report detailing seven decades of abuse at the hands of priests and religious orders.

The Pennsylvania AG created this gritty video featuring three survivors.

So… after twenty-plus years of pedophile priests – and the bishops who cover for them – showing up as front-page news, the Holy Father drafts what the Vatican says is the first-ever worldwide directive from any pope to the People of God on sexual abuse. Oh man, finally, that is awesome, let’s do this. He’ll get the world’s billion Catholics chanting “lock-em-up” like West Virginians at a Trump rally, right?

Right?

You be the judge. Here’s the letter.

Remember that opening scene in Spotlight? Priest gets arrested, kid and his mom give the cops a statement, bishop comes to the station to guilt the mom and spring the priest, young cop says “at the arraignment…”  and old cop says, like you knew he would, “what arraignment?”

Spooky. Enraging. That moment when the Lincoln drives away with the priest inside… God Dammit.

That movie went on to win an Oscar as it documented the Boston Globe’s expose’ of pedophilia and coverups in 2001. It went deep into victim-shaming, depression, suicide, substance abuse, crime, and imprisonment among thousands of victims.

That movie also detailed the courage and persistence of a crew of reporters who won a Pulitzer when they broke the wall of silence and manipulation put up by Cardinal Bernard Law. Yes, Cardinal Law, the same guy who was moved to the Vatican after the story broke. He got promoted to a ceremonial post and, when he died, was buried at the Vatican with all the glory, laud, and honor due a pure and devoted servant of the Good Lord Jesus Christ.

Cardinal Law was buried there, on what we’re led to believe is holy and honored ground, having never faced a single real-world charge in the USA. He was buried with the blessing of His Holiness Pope Francis, the man who now, just eight months later, says Catholics need to assume the burden of accountability for what Law and those priests in Pennsylvania and Boston and untold myriad more did, to violate the lives and the innocence of children.

Pray about it, he says. Contemplate forgiveness, he says. We the leadership of the church ask forgiveness, he says.

We’re in this together, he says. Really? Seriously?

The pope was right about a few things. He wrote about a culture of death. He wrote about abandoning the little ones and wounds that never go away.

Then he got weird. He wrote about Mary’s song. He wrote about penance and fasting, and praying, praying really really hard about it. He quoted the bible six different times, and excuse me, but by and large, the very small sample size of still-practicing Catholics in my life do not go to church to read or hear or pay attention to scripture, but to receive grace through the body and blood of Christ, then GTFO before kickoff.

What did the pope neglect to mention? A hell of a lot.

The pope wrote not a single word directing every bishop to turn every accusation directly over to law enforcement.

The pope said nothing to establish a new standard against protecting accused perps, nothing about assisting prosecutors in doing their jobs.

The pope danced around but did nothing to stomp out the poisonous notion that priests, bishops, and religious orders are above the law of the land. Nothing to bring them down from the pedestal where so many Catholics have for so many years been brainwashed to see them as infallible.

With a few forceful words, the pope could have swung a great historic wrecking ball to bring that notion down. Instead of calling repeatedly for fasting and penance and prayer and forgiveness, He could have said “I will personally make sure every one of you goes to jail.” He didn’t.

The sobbing young woman in the Pennsylvania video spent a lifetime pretending to be something she’s not. Because when she spoke up against her abuser as a child, “it’s your word against God.”

Think about that relationship for a minute. Imagine it.

What a perfect, plaintive synopsis of the culture of abuse and shame. The pope said nothing about that.

The pope said nothing to create a new expectation of unbending accountability for the very human failings of church leaders.

A cop passes a test after two months in the academy and gets to cruise our streets with a badge and a gun. A soldier enlists, passes basic training, and patrols a foreign land in our name. A priest spends a couple years in seminary and takes an assignment to a parish.

The patrol car, the camo fatigues, the fancy robes – none have earned our brainless devotion, even if our culture tells us to give it to them. None are infallible. All must be held to account on matters of conduct and character, especially by their colleagues and their bosses who really really really want us to respect the car and the fatigues and the robe.

The pope didn’t go there. Yet he wants prayer and forgiveness and penance and fasting and contemplation from all People of God.

Sorry Francis, that’s just way too little, way too late.