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The extraordinary consistory of cardinals Pope Leo XIV has called for June 26–27 is shaping up to be exercise in “Leonine” synodality – real collegial collaboration on issues affecting the life of the Church – but so far, the pontiff hasn’t given the cardinals a real-world practical problem to address. Leo has just such an issue in the burgeoning global crisis of clerical sexual abuse and coverup. On Wednesday of last week, Leo met with members of the Center for Research and Training in Child Protection (CEPROME), which is from Spain, where he met with sexual abuse victims last week. “The encounter with Christ leaves a positive mark on us and leads us towards a life full of love and freedom, whereas the exact opposite occurs in situations of abuse, causing traumatic wounds that hinder and undermine a person’s spiritual and human development,” Leo told them. He thanked CEPROME for strengthening the collaboration networks between local Churches and civil institutions, “and promoting a culture of prevention and care for the most vulnerable.” “It is my hope that all spaces within the Church, whether physical or virtual, may truly be places for a fruitful encounter with Jesus Christ, free from fear, suspicion or mistrust,” Leo said. Despite these statements, clerical abuse is not on the agenda of the extraordinary consistory taking place this week, and it is fair to say the issue is conspicuous in its absence. Leo XIV came to the papal office with a reputation for even-handed and level-headed leadership – the sort of fellow who will resist temptation to “Do something!” in the face of crises until he sees what needs doing and how to do it – but the crisis of abuse and cover-up needs address. Collegiality and synodality Neither has the Synod of Bishops ever tackled the issue. Pope Francis called a four-day summit on child protection in 2019, nearly two decades after the crisis exploded in 2002 in Boston (although it had been covered by the local press in places like Louisiana and Texas since the 1980s). The short summit in 2019 resulted in the publication of Vos estis lux mundi, which greatly strengthened Church law against the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. This new law has been praised, but observers – churchmen, experts, and journalists – continue to note how Vos estis is honored more in the breach than in the observance. Vatican observers also noted at the time that the short summit was mostly a fig leaf for synodality, its principal legislative fruit being a document largely put together by Vatican officials and committees set up to draft it. Over the 2000 years of the Catholic Church, synods have mostly served to draft legislation, either on theological issues or on more mundane matters like the role of bishops in governance. Papal primacy is perhaps the chief reason synods have fallen out of use as real instruments of governance in the West. Even the Synod of Bishops established by Pope St. Paul VI in the wake of the Vatican Council II quickly became a talking shop managed by the Apostolic Palace. Observers across the spectrum of opinion in the Church agree that the abuse crisis urgently needs both better legislation and better enforcement of the laws purporting to deal with it. The crisis of abuse and coverup has plagued the Catholic Church for decades. The crisis was plaguing the Church for decades before it erupted into worldwide scandal. Nations defined by their Catholicism – Ireland, to name only one – have seen Church influence collapse after the reality of clerical abuse and its cover-up by bishops became known. The Catholic Church has been growing significantly in Africa and Asia, where the scandal of abuse and coverup hasn’t yet exploded in the way it has elsewhere – but that isn’t because abuse doesn’t happen in those places. In the West, the abuse crisis is also changing form. Abuse of minors is thankfully falling drastically – although not totally – but the abuse of adults is emerging as a grave and widespread issue in urgent need of address. As Crux Now has been reporting, a jury in Texas sentenced Father Anthony Odiong to life in prison earlier this month, after finding him guilty of serial felony sexual assault. Christopher R. Altieri has reported how more than one diocese in at least two states sat on allegations against Odiong for years without informing the faithful because – in the words of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to Crux Now – the reports of misconduct “involved adults.” RELATED: Diocese of Austin had allegations against sex offender priest years before arrest, conviction “[A]rchdiocesan officials chose to address the report directly with Odiong,” in 2019, New Orleans told us. New Orleans left the priest in ministry – as pastor of a parish – for four more years, during which he continued to prey on women and even fathered a child. Once again, the Vatican is behind the curve on the issue. In Texas, where the cleric was eventually brought to trial and convicted, state law puts clergy in the same class as teachers, medical staff, and therapists: Abuse committed by these people is a go-to-jail felony. Although Vos estis lux mundi does cover similar issues, what constitutes a “vulnerable adult” at Church law is poorly defined. Crimes against adult victims are too rarely prosecuted in the Church, not only because it is not clear who is a “vulnerable adult” but also because there is too little clarity regarding what judicial authority should handle the process. Clearer legislation in these regards would go a long way toward bettering the situation, even if only by closing the gaps and crevices in which senior churchmen can hide from accountability. Synodality, reimagined Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, made synodality a focus of his pontificate. Even Francis himself, however, admitted that the notion of synodality remained nebulous even toward the endo of a pontificate dedicated in large part to figuring out what it is an how it ought to work. That said, one area Leo and Francis clearly agree on is the view that more collaboration is needed both within the Vatican and between the Vatican and the wider Catholic Church. The extraordinary consistory scheduled for later this week is the second Leo has held in his short pontificate; Pope Francis held only one during his entire reign – and that in 2014, not a full year into his twelve-year turn. Francis obviously viewed the Synod of Bishops as the central place to focus, which many cardinals saw as sidelining their college. Neither the College of Cardinals nor the Synod of Bishops has been used to tackle the crisis of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up, which is universally recognized as the most serious concrete issue of governance in the twenty-first century Church. Pope Leo is starting to show how he wants to use synodality in the Church by increasing the role cardinals have in making decisions. He is also continuing the use of the Synod of Bishops. Unless and until proper synodality is used to tackle the real endemic problems of abuse and coverup in the Church, no effort will amount to more than rearranging the deck chairs on a ship that has already struck an iceberg. Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome

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