Pope urges US bishops to heal divisions, repair trust

By JEFF KAROUB
January 3, 2019

Pope Francis is encouraging U.S. bishops meeting near Chicago to unify as the Catholic church deals with a “crisis of credibility” stemming from the clergy sex abuse scandal.

In an eight-page letter addressed to the bishops and released to the media Thursday, Francis acknowledges “no response or approach seems adequate” to the crisis representing a grave threat to his papacy.

Still, he wrote, all church leaders must reckon with parishioners’ pain, heal internal divisions and devise specific approaches that go beyond “creating new committees or improving flow charts.”

Francis suggested the bishops hold the current weeklong retreat for prayer and spiritual reflection. The event at the Mundelein Seminary is a prelude to a high-stakes summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican next month to forge a comprehensive response the crisis engulfing the church.

WORLD NEWS JANUARY 3, 2019 / 11:51 AM / UPDATED 41 MINUTES AGO

Pope Francis criticizes U.S. bishops over abuse scandal, demands unity

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis criticized U.S. bishops on Thursday for failing to show unity in the face of a sexual abuse crisis, saying internal bickering had to end over the scandal which has decimated the credibility of the American Church.

In a long and highly unusual letter sent as U.S. bishops started a week-long retreat to reflect on the spreading crisis, Francis said the handling of the scandal showed the urgent need for a new approach to management and mindset within the Church.

“God’s faithful people and the Church’s mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and the poor way that they were handled,” the pope wrote, adding that bishops had “concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation”.

Pope Francis has summoned senior Catholic bishops from around the world to the Vatican next month to discuss the protection of minors, in his latest attempt to come to grips with the abuse crisis which first erupted in the United States.

-snip-