Jesuit superior: Pope Francis recognized mistakes on abuse
'This is not about giving Pope Francis a medal or giving him a grade, but about learning about potential criticism and mistakes,' said the head of the Society of Jesus
The head of the Jesuit order said Thursday that “Pope Francis always acknowledged his limitations, his mistakes, and his slowness” in responding to abuse cases, like those of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta and Fr. Marko Rupnik.
At an April 24 press conference in Rome on Pope Francis’ life and legacy, Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., said that “it’s not about saving [face for] what he did or what he didn’t [do], but that if there were mistakes, and if these mistakes had consequences, we must overcome them.”
“This is not about giving Pope Francis a medal or giving him a grade, but about learning about potential criticism and mistakes,” Sosa said, in response to a question from The Pillar.
“With regard to abuse cases, I think the Church is not in the same place when Pope Francis was elected. That’s without a doubt. It hasn’t been a straight line… but the Church has advanced in that direction,” he commented.
Pope Francis’ reforms to Church institutions, canon law, and culture with regard to the clerical sexual abuse include establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014, overseeing a global safeguarding summit in 2019, and establishing a mechanism for holding bishops accountable for negligence in handling of abuse cases with the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi.
But Pope Francis was also criticized for his handling of the scandals involving Zanchetta and Rupnik.
In one of the first episcopal appointments after his 2013 election, Pope Francis named Zanchetta to lead the Argentine Diocese of Orán. Zanchetta resigned in 2017, at the age of 53, with health reasons given as the cause.
Though the Vatican later said allegations of abuse against Zanchetta were forst raised in 2018, Fr. Juan José Manzano, former vicar general of the diocese, claimed officials were warned as early as 2015 about the bishop’s misconduct, including possession of sexually explicit photos, harassment of seminarians, and financial irregularities.
After his resignation, Zanchetta was given a Vatican post, serving as assessor at the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, and lived at the pope’s residence. He left the post in 2021.
An Argentine court convicted Zanchetta in 2022 of multiple charges of aggravated sexual abuse, and sentenced him to four and half years in prison for sexually abusing seminarians. He has still faced no known canonical penalty or censure.
In the case of Rupnik, a mosaic artist who is accused of sexually abusing around 30 religious sisters and was expelled from the Jesuits in 2023 for refusing to observe the vow of obedience, the Vatican initially declined to lift the statute of limitations for a canonical trial when dozens of allegations against Rupnik surfaced in 2022.
Pope Francis lifted the statute of limitations and ordered a canonical process, but only a year later and following year after a public outcry at Rupnik’s incardination in a diocese in his homeland of Slovenia, following his expulsion from the Jesuits.
The Vatican case against Rupnik is ongoing.
Sosa, the superior general of the Society of Jesus since 2016, was also asked about perceptions that the pope failed to speak out against Latin American dictatorships, including in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Sosa, who is Venezuelan, said that “not everyone agrees if he did or didn’t do what he should in Latin America, it’s a polemic issue.”
“But I can attest to how many lives have been saved due to secret actions, because not everything is done from St. Peter’s balcony, there are many things that are done without the need to publicize them, and it’s better that they’re not known,” he said.
In Venezuela, the pope was criticized in 2019 when Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Vatican had a position of “positive neutrality” amid widespread protests that were violently repressed in the country.
When asked about Venezuela during an interview in September 2024, Pope Francis said: “Dictatorships don’t work and sooner or later end up badly.”
While Nicaragua suffered the worst religious persecution in the western hemisphere, many criticized what they saw as the pope’s silence, while others claimed he would only make the persecution worse by speaking up.
But from 2023 onward, the pope gravitated toward stronger rhetoric against the Nicaraguan regime, comparing President Daniel Ortega to Hitler in an interview, writing a pastoral letter to the Church in Nicaragua, and personally appointing exiled Bishop Rolando Álvarez as a delegate for the second session of the synod on synodality.
“I think the evaluation here is different,” Sosa said. “In Venezuela’s case, the pope was very consistent in saying ‘the Venezuelan bishops’ voice is my voice,’ and the Venezuelan bishops have been very firm. I think these are situations that only time can help us evaluate better.”
“It’s not about saying if the pope got it right or wrong, but about how can we find a better position, a better contribution of the Church to these processes.”
If "Pope Francis always acknowledged his limitations, his mistakes, and his slowness” in responding to abuse cases", why did he never correct those mistakes? The first thing you should do after making a mistake is to fix it if you can right?
Well, although Fr. Sosa doesn't seem to be entirely forward here, it's interesting to note that many in power are seeing this as a time for candor and frankness about the shortcomings of this pontificate. That gives me hope that we may see a better one.