About “the moral collapse within the Church” publicly stated the President of the Episcopal conference USA
It is not only the fault of the criminals but also the bishops, who for many years remained silent and failed to protect the children entrusted to them, according to invictory.com.
In this regard, Archbishop of Washington cardinal Donald William Wuerl again made a proposal to create a U.S. special Episcopal Commission for the prevention of sexual harassment to maloletni of the clergy.
The essence of the work of the Commission will be to collect the charges or information about the sexual behavior of the clergy, of which the bishops will inform the Apostolic Nuncio and the Holy see.
In turn, Bishop of Harrisburg Monsignor Ronald William Gainer addressed the faithful with an open letter in which he said about the painful results of an internal investigation of cases of abuse of minors by 71 representative of the clergy of this diocese. According to the allegations, these cases have taken place since 1947. The Bishop decided to publish the list of the accused.
As reported by the SPM, because of the scandals in the Catholic Church reduced the number of seminarians.In recent years, the influx of youth in the Catholic seminaries has decreased dramatically, and the average age of a priest in the United States is now 65 years old. Pope Francis, pointing to a reduction in the number of priests worldwide, said that the reason for this alarming situation is a series of scandals that continue to shake the Catholic Church in recent years.