The group End Clergy Abuse issued an open letter to the cardinals who are meeting informally this week before the start of the May 7 conclave. SNAP, the main U.S.-based survivor group, also identified cardinals who themselves have problematic records in a new database, highlighting a new level of scrutiny of all possible contenders for the papacy.

The developments come amid real questions about how prominent the abuse scandal is featuring in the discussions about finding a new pope. After two decades of unrelenting revelations about abuse and cover-up that have discredited the Catholic hierarchy, many church leaders would like to think the issue is in the past, the survivors said.

“The sexual abuse crisis is not a matter of the past. It is present. And nowhere is its devastation more visible than in the Global South,” the survivors said in the open letter.

  • HellsBelleOP
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    6 hours ago

    I mean if they have rules against fraud and bribery you would think having rules against sexual assault and abuse would be a no-brainer. Yet here we are … still.

    • Øπ3ŕ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      We’re no closer to criminalizing insider trading by elected officials than prosecuting religious leaders for raping our children — for centuries. That’s proof enough we’re fucked as a civilization.

      • HellsBelleOP
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        3 hours ago

        When I said “they” I was referencing the Vatican.

  • Øπ3ŕ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 hours ago

    The Venn diagram of Catholic* priests and perpetually protected rapists is a circle drawn in crayon.

    /* for example