[National Review] A committee of Catholic Church leaders and sexual-abuse experts has chastised Catholic bishops worldwide to take responsibility for the Church’s sex-abuse crisis and to speak personally to victims in their areas ‐ or risk losing the Church’s credibility."Absent a comprehensive and communal response, not only will we fail to bring healing to victim survivors, but the very credibility of the Church to carry on the mission of Christ will be in jeopardy throughout the world," wrote the steering committee of the Vatican’s upcoming February conference on the Church’s sex-abuse epidemic, in a letter to attendees.
The committee is comprised of cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s top sex-abuse investigator, and father Hans Zollner, an abuse expert in Rome.
"But each of us needs to own this challenge, coming together in solidarity, humility, and penitence to repair the damage done, sharing a common commitment to transparency, and holding everyone in the Church accountable," they wrote.
"The first step must be acknowledging the truth of what has happened," the committee warned the bishops and other Church leaders.
Pope Francis has called an unusual conference of Church leaders at the Vatican from February 21 to 24 that will address the abuse crisis. The conference will request the presence of the leaders of 110 national Catholic bishops’ conferences as well as many abuse experts and heads of religious orders.