Cardinal Blase J. Cupich on Abuse in the Catholic Church

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You are amongst the organizers of this committee, which is designed, again, to raise awareness and take some action on the ongoing issue of cover ups and historical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Before I ask you about the intent, I just want to say Pope Francis seems to be trying to downplay expectations, saying that it’s more of a “Sunday school for the bishops to teach them about the problem of child sex abuse.” He said this.

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POPE FRANCIS (through translator): We have to deflate expectations to these points that I’ve made because the problem of abuse will continue. It is a human problem, a human problem that is everywhere.

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AMANPOUR: Comment on that, first of all, of what he says.

CUPICH: Yes. The Holy Father in remarking, making those remarks, wanted to make sure that the proper focus is on the two objectives that he has set forward, namely to build that kind of awareness so that the bishops throughout the world claim ownership for this issue. And secondly, that we’ve put together a framework that will make clear to them what are the concrete steps for keeping children safe, for handling abuse cases, but also, that they fully understand how they’re going to be held accountable. Those are significant outcomes that we are anticipating with this meeting that’s going to take going place. But he’s right, to think that there will not be any more abuse of children in the church is unrealistic, we do our best. We know that it is a social problem throughout the world but this is a significant step forward for us.

AMANPOUR: I just wonder if you could comment on the fact that even now in 2019, you’re talking about an awareness raising committee. I mean, for some that might seem just quaint, how much more awareness can they be? This has been a drip, drip, drip and a flood and the tsunami of allegations of wrongdoing, of corruption in the church. And any other major corporation or company or organization would have been destroyed by this, would no longer be standing by this and yet, I’m sorry, but the Catholic Church keeps going, talking about raising awareness.

CUPICH: Well, I think that raising awareness is globally now. We surely have raised awareness in the United States and in the Western world. But we also know that that awareness is not heightened in other countries throughout the world and he wants to make sure that it is. And when, in fact, we put in measures to protect children, when we make sure that we cooperate with a law enforcement, the incidences of child abuse drop dramatically