Father Zollner: Listening to victims a trademark of Pope Francis’ pontificate

ROME (OSV News) — One of the world’s top experts on clerical sexual abuse, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, said Pope Francis will be remembered as a pontiff who made listening to victims of abuse one of the trademarks of his pontificate — a habit that made him a model for other bishops and leaders in the church.

“He was really listening” when he sat down with survivors of abuse. “Any leader in the church, any believer in Jesus Christ, should listen to those who have been wounded, especially those who have been wounded within the church and by church people,” Father Zollner told OSV News April 23.

The Jesuit expert and Director of Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome said that from his experience “in accompanying a good number of victims and survivors, and from reading their messages and receiving calls from some of those survivors who met with Pope Francis over the last 12 years,” the listening ear of Pope Francis for those hurt within the church is the pontiff’s “most important and most impressive legacy.”

Regular meetings that Pope Francis practiced with victims of abuse were “an example for all those who are leaders in the church,” Father Zollner told OSV News, remembering especially the first meeting with abuse survivors he helped facilitate and was present at as it happened in July 2014, right after the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of minors had been established.

“There were six survivors who were supposed to meet with him. I accompanied two of them in the personal meeting. And it was just impressive how he was able to meet very different persons who had very different reactions, and were very different in their approach toward him,” said Father Zollner.

He added: “I saw it firsthand that he was really fully with the other person, especially those who have suffered. In one case the person was lashing out against the church, crying, accusing the hierarchy, raging. And the pope was all ear and all heart, just taking it in, not defensive at all.”

Father Zollner recalled the second person “was absolutely calm and happy to meet with the pope” who “did not ask for anything specifically. Francis was just there with the person. There was no barrier or whatever that would have hindered the conversation and the open sharing.”

Father Zollner said that this first meeting with victims of abuse for him was one of the highlights of the pontificate regarding efforts to tackle the abuse crisis. The second was the summit on the protection of minors Pope Francis called in February 2019.

The Jesuit expert said “we organizers were working very closely” with the pope on the organization of the meeting, to which the presidents of all bishops’ conferences, the heads of the Roman Curia, of the Oriental Churches, and of Religious Orders were invited.

“To see how much he was engaged and how much he was trying to bring the bishops along … as much as he could. It was one necessary and very important step forward on a journey that is far from over. Still much has to be done.”

Pope Francis “put sexual abuse against children and adults committed by clergy and others in the church on the agenda. He has spoken a lot about it. He has changed the law, he knew he had to deal with it.”

Father Zollner said that Pope Francis “allowed putting on the agenda of the church the ‘systemic’ questions: what is it within the culture and the institution of the church that made it possible that abuse was happening” and “how can accountability for and transparency in the church’s handling of allegations be implemented?”

He said this helped to go beyond “dealing just with single cases,” but also ask within the church how are they connected to the church system, “a certain mentality within the church that was running away from facing the consequences of evil for those who have suffered and for those who have not done what they should have done as pastors.”

The Jesuit expert emphasized “there are many more things that need to be done, especially in the implementation of some of the norms that have been promulgated over the last 12 years … bringing those in positions of responsibility to do what they are supposed to do.”

A moment remembered by many victims is the moment of Pope Francis’ conversion after his apostolic trip to Chile in 2018.

Before celebrating his final Mass in Iquique, local reporters asked the pope about his support for Bishop Juan Barros whom Francis appointed to lead the southern Chilean Diocese of Osorno in 2015. Victims accused the bishop publicly of covering up abuses of disgraced Father Francisco Karadima.

“The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I will speak. There is not one piece of evidence against him. It is calumny. Is that clear?” the pope responded.

He quickly refrained from what Pope Francis himself called “a slap in the face” to survivors and “he was able to really let go of his first impressions or a judgment that he had already formed when he learned about the reality,” Father Zollner told OSV News.

“He apologized and … he was humble enough to acknowledge his mistake and to admit that he was on a learning curve.”

Asked whether Pope Francis understood the gravity of the case of Father Marko Rupnik, the former Jesuit accused of abusing over 20 women, Father Zollner said: “We don’t know, and now we can’t ask him anymore. I hope that DDF will come up with a verdict soon after the election of the new pontiff.”

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