VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of
responding decisively to the problem of the sexual abuse of
minors by members of the clergy and called on the Vatican
office dealing with suspected cases to continue carrying out
its mandate.
During an April 5 meeting with Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller,
prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
the pope discussed the office's various responsibilities.
However, he made a particular point of highlighting its work
to counter clerical sexual abuse, telling Archbishop Muller
he wanted the congregation "to act decisively concerning
cases of sexual abuse," the Vatican said in a written
statement released after the meeting.
The pope, the statement said, asked the congregation to
continue: "promoting measures that protect minors, above all;
help for those who have suffered such violence in the past;
necessary procedures against those found guilty; (and) the
commitment of bishops' conferences in formulating and
implementing the necessary directives in this is area that is
so important for the church's witness and credibility."
The pope also assured victims that they had a special place
in his heart and prayers.
Pope Francis was holding private meetings in early April with
the individual heads of various Vatican offices and
congregations. According to the Vatican schedule, the pope
had at least an hour slotted for the 11 a.m. meeting with
Archbishop Muller.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future pope had said his
archdiocese had been very attentive to the problem and
"rigorous" in its screening and selection of candidates for
the priesthood and religious life.
Sex abusers suffer from a "perversion of a psychological
kind" that is not caused by or directly linked to celibacy,
he said in a book-length series of interviews.
"If a priest is a pedophile, he is so because he brought that
perversion with him from before his ordination," and not even
priestly celibacy would be able to "cure it," the future pope
said in the book, "Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge
Bergoglio" by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti.
Because such a perversion already would be present in a
candidate, he said, "it's necessary to pay lots of attention
to the choice of candidates to the priesthood."
He said the archdiocese of Buenos Aires had been very
"rigorous for many years already," noting how only about 40
percent of candidates were actually admitted into the
priesthood.
He also described how candidates undergo in-depth psychiatric
tests to look for different forms of deviant tendencies,
including "megalomaniacal, dishonest and criminal"
tendencies.
In "On Heaven and Earth," a 2010 book of conversations with a
Buenos Aires rabbi, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
said, when it is discovered that a priest has engaged in such
behavior, it is imperative that no one "look the other way."
"One cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of
another person," he said.
The proper action to take against an abuser, he said, would
be to prohibit him from exercising his ministry and begin a
canonical process in the diocese.
"I don't believe in those positions that propose supporting a
kind of 'corporate' spirit in order to avoid damaging the
image of the institution," he told the rabbi, Abraham Skorka.
The future Pope Francis said moving an abusive priest to
another parish in an effort to protect the image of the
church had appeared as a "solution" at times in the United
States, but that it was "foolishness" because the abusive
priest only takes his problem with him to a new parish.
He said he admired "the courage and honesty of Benedict XVI"
in confronting the problem, calling for "zero tolerance" and
enacting stricter measures to protect children and to punish
abusers.