- Title: ITALY: Members of abuse victim network hold canonisation protest vigil
- Date: 25th April 2014
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (APRIL 25, 2014) (REUTERS) SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS (SNAP) MEMBERS LIGHTING CANDLES BY PHOTOS OF CHILDREN WITH ST. PETER'S BASILICA IN BACKGROUND CANDLES BEING LIT SNAP MEMBERS LIGHTING CANDLES CANDLES BEING LIT CANDLES AROUND PHOTOS OF CHILDREN SNAP MEMBERS SPEAKING / TABLE WITH PHOTOS AND CANDLES PHOTOS OF TWO BOYS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF THE SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS (SNAP) BARBARA BLAINE SAYING: "We are extremely disappointed that Vatican officials are choosing to honour Pope John Paul II. We believe that his track record shows that he had the knowledge, information, the opportunity and the authority to take action that would have protected children and yet he refused to do that." PHOTOS OF CHILDREN ON TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS (SNAP) MEMBER DAVID D'BONNABEL SAYING: "There is nothing saintly about turning your back on the rape of children. Our main concern at this point, we are all grown up, we are basically strong and we can speak for ourselves and we can defend ourselves to the best of our capacity but we speak for the ones who can not speak for themselves and for the children who are just growing up and the children who are commended to being educated in Catholic schools." PHOTOS OF CHILDREN ON TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS (SNAP) MEMBER MIGUEL HURTADO SAYING: "The message we want to send to the victims is that the ones who should be elevated are the victims of sexual abuse, especially those who were not able to go on living and ended their lives. We believe that a person who for 27 years defended policies that protected and covered up those who committed sex offences against minors should not be exalted." CUPOLA OF ST. PETER'S BASILICA VATICAN (APRIL 25, 2014) (REUTERS) AMERICAN AUTHOR GEORGE WEIGEL TALKING TO JOURNALISTS AT THE VATICAN MEDIA CENTRE STATUE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUTHOR GEORGE WEIGEL SAYING: "The process of canonisation judges a man's life as a whole and I don't know any serious student of life of either John XXIII or John Paul II who deny that there were lives of heroic sanctity. I think people returning time and again to scandal is a shame. Those things were real and they were scandalous, they were crimes and sins and they were addressed." VARIOUS OF DRAWINGS OF POPE JOHN PAUL II IN THE VATICAN MEDIA CENTRE
- Embargoed: 10th May 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Crime,Religion,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA74MCNA2A0PNQ6Y1GDOROCDKXV
- Story Text: With the sun setting over the Vatican on Friday (April 25) evening, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) lit candles on the rooftop terrace of a Roman hotel, urging people to continue to speak up about abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
The evening vigil took place as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are arriving in the Italian capital for Sunday's (April 27) canonisation ceremony at which Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared saints - an unprecedented twin canonisation that has evoked much joy among believers but also a tinge of controversy.
By being made saints, the Church will declare that they each led a life of holiness and are worthy of imitation by the faithful.
But critics have said the canonisation of John Paul, which set a speed record for modern times by coming only nine years after his death, has been too hasty.
While the late Polish pope is almost universally hailed for his role in helping bring about the fall of communism, his critics say he was slow to grasp the seriousness of the sexual abuse crisis that emerged towards the end of his pontificate.
"We are extremely disappointed that Vatican officials are choosing to honour Pope John Paul II. We believe that his track record shows that he had the knowledge, information, the opportunity and the authority to take action that would have protected children and yet he refused to do that," SNAP President Barbara Blaine said.
Specifically, critics have been pressing the Vatican over what the pope knew about sexual abuse by Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of a disgraced Catholic religious order, the Legionaries of Christ.
Maciel lived a doubled life for years as a pedophile, womaniser and drug addict while running the rich, conservative order he founded and being held up by the pope and his aides as an example of an outstanding religious leader.
John Paul's defenders have said that while aides might have known the allegations were true, they kept much information from the pope, who believed the Charges were part of a plot against the Church similar to those by communist authorities in his native Poland during the Cold War.
Maciel was eventually disciplined in 2006 by John Paul's successor, former Pope Benedict, when the Vatican was forced to admit that decades of allegations were true.
Groups representing victims of sexual abuse have criticised John Paul over the Maciel case as well as his decision to give Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, who was forced to resign in 2002 after abuse scandals hit the United States, a prestigious job at a basilica in Rome.
"There is nothing saintly about turning your back on the rape of children. Our main concern at this point, we are all grown up, we are basically strong and we can speak for ourselves and we can defend ourselves to the best of our capacity but we speak for the ones who can not speak for themselves and for the children who are just growing up and the children who are commended to being educated in Catholic schools," SNAP member from Austria, David D'Bonnabel, said.
Another SNAP member, Miguel Hurtado said the victims, rather than Pope John Paul II, should be venerated.
"The message we want to send to the victims is that the ones who should be elevated are the victims of sexual abuse, especially those who were not able to go on living and ended their lives. We believe that a person who for 27 years defended policies that protected and covered up those who committed sex offences against minors should not be honoured," he said.
Speaking to Reuters Television earlier on Friday, the American author of the best-selling John Paul biography "Witness to Hope" said canonisation was not intended to be a comprehensive evaluation of a papacy.
"The process of canonisation judges a man's life as a whole and I don't know any serious student of life of either John XXIII or John Paul II who deny that there were lives of heroic sanctity. I think people returning time and again to scandal is a shame. Those things were real and they were scandalous, they were crimes and sins and they were addressed," he said.
Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Catholics are thrilled that John Paul will be made a saint.
Millions of people attended his funeral in April, 2005, and many cried "Santo Subito" or "Make him a saint immediately". - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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