Abuse survivors demand resignation of “totally inappropriate” Fernández
On Friday the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) advocacy groups issued a joint statement calling on Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and to rescind his elevation as cardinal, over past mishandling of abuse allegations.
Fernández is due to receive his red hat from Pope Francis later today. In their statement SNAP and ECA said that in their view, by tapping Fernández to lead the DDF, “Pope Francis demonstrates not only poor judgment, but also gross disrespect to Catholic victims around the world.”
“Among the responsibilities of the DDF is the handling of sexual abuse accusations brought against clergy. In fact, this responsibility constitutes 80 percent of its work. Yet earlier this year, Archbishop Fernández admitted that he made ‘mistakes’ in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexually abusing children,” the statement said.
Fernández also admitted to having made mistakes in handling previous cases, having allegedly refused to believe allegations by minors against Eduardo Lorenzo, a priest in the Archdiocese of La Plata, initially keeping him in ministry. At the end of 2019, hours after learning that an Argentine judge had ordered his arrest for the alleged sexual abuse of five children, Lorenzo was found dead in what was ruled a suicide.
Concerns immediately after his appointment were flagged by the Bishop Accountability advocacy group. Calling Fernández a “totally inappropriate fit” for the DDF, they said “the Catholic Church is still tone-deaf on the issue of clergy sexual abuse.”
“As we see it, the long and terrible history of clergy sexual abuse and its cover-up is still being written. By appointing Archbishop Fernández to the DDF and naming him a cardinal, Pope Francis clearly demonstrates that it is business as usual in the Catholic Church,” they said.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/abuse-survi...fernandez/
On Friday the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) advocacy groups issued a joint statement calling on Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and to rescind his elevation as cardinal, over past mishandling of abuse allegations.
Fernández is due to receive his red hat from Pope Francis later today. In their statement SNAP and ECA said that in their view, by tapping Fernández to lead the DDF, “Pope Francis demonstrates not only poor judgment, but also gross disrespect to Catholic victims around the world.”
“Among the responsibilities of the DDF is the handling of sexual abuse accusations brought against clergy. In fact, this responsibility constitutes 80 percent of its work. Yet earlier this year, Archbishop Fernández admitted that he made ‘mistakes’ in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexually abusing children,” the statement said.
Fernández also admitted to having made mistakes in handling previous cases, having allegedly refused to believe allegations by minors against Eduardo Lorenzo, a priest in the Archdiocese of La Plata, initially keeping him in ministry. At the end of 2019, hours after learning that an Argentine judge had ordered his arrest for the alleged sexual abuse of five children, Lorenzo was found dead in what was ruled a suicide.
Concerns immediately after his appointment were flagged by the Bishop Accountability advocacy group. Calling Fernández a “totally inappropriate fit” for the DDF, they said “the Catholic Church is still tone-deaf on the issue of clergy sexual abuse.”
“As we see it, the long and terrible history of clergy sexual abuse and its cover-up is still being written. By appointing Archbishop Fernández to the DDF and naming him a cardinal, Pope Francis clearly demonstrates that it is business as usual in the Catholic Church,” they said.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/abuse-survi...fernandez/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
