POPE Francis is summoning leading bishops from around the world for a February summit to discuss how to prevent sexual abuse by priests.
The summit, involving the presidents of every bishops conference, was announced a day before Francis meets US church leaders hit by fresh accusations over the cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
The February 21 to 24 meeting at the Vatican is believed to be the first of its kind, and signals a realisation at the highest levels of the church that clergy sex abuse is a global problem.
Earlier this year, Francis faced what was then the worst crisis of his papacy when he repeatedly discredited victims of a notorious Chilean predator priest.
He eventually admitted to “grave errors in judgment” and has taken steps to make amends, sanction guilty bishops and reform the Chilean episcopacy.
More recently, Francis’s papacy has been jolted by accusations from a retired Vatican ambassador that he rehabilitated a top American cardinal from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI for having molested and harassed adult seminarians.
The Vatican has not responded to the accusations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano but has promised “clarifications” that presumably will come some time after Francis’s meeting with the US delegation.
The Vatican said the meeting would be headed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and also include Francis’s top sex abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
DiNardo has said he wants Francis to authorise an investigation into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was removed as cardinal in July after an accusation that he groped a teenager.
The Vatican has known since at least 2000 that McCarrick would invite seminarians to his New Jersey beach house and into his bed.
St John Paul II made him archbishop of Washington and a cardinal in 2001, presumably because Vatican officials were impressed by his fundraising prowess and considered his past homosexual activity a mere “moral lapse” and not a gross abuse of power.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here