When I saw this lede on a Reuters news story this week, my sense of déjà vu was overwhelming:
A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse issues joined victims on Monday in urging Pope Francis to enact a zero-tolerance law throughout the global Catholic church so any cleric found guilty of abuse would be removed from ministry.
Really?! Are we really still talking about “zero tolerance” for abuse at this late date? Maybe the Reuters report misrepresented the talk by Father Hans Zollner, who heads a program at the Gregorian University on curbing abuse. Maybe the term “zero tolerance” has simply become a shorthand expression, intended to cover all sorts of efforts to protect children.
”Zero tolerance” was the policy the US bishop endorsed during their Dallas meeting in 2002. “Zero tolerance” is the approach that Pope Francis demanded when speaking to reporters in 2014 and again in 2022 Portuguese television interview.
Why is it still newsworthy, then, when a prominent Catholic calls for “zero tolerance” today?
Answer: because for all the talk, for all the pledges, for all the touted policies and programs, the Vatican has not adopted a “zero tolerance” mentality regarding abuse.
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