Pope Francis Did Enough?
As 133 cardinals meet in Rome to decide the next pope, questions about the legacy of the last one will loom large over their discussions.
For the Catholic Church, no aspect of Pope Francis’ record is more sensitive or contentious than his handling of the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy.
While he’s widely acknowledged to have gone further than his predecessors in acknowledging victims and reforming the Church’s own internal procedures, many survivors do not think he went far enough.
Alexa MacPherson’s abuse by a Catholic priest began around the age of three and continued for six years.
“When I was nine-and-a-half, my father caught him trying to rape me on the living room couch,” she told me when we met on the Boston waterfront.
“For me, it was pretty much an everyday occurrence.”
On discovering the abuse, her father called the police.
A court hearing for a criminal complaint against the priest, Peter Kanchong, accused of assault and battery of a minor, was set for 24 August 1984.
But unbeknownst to the family, something extraordinary was taking place behind the scenes.
The Church – an institution that wielded enormous power in a deeply Catholic city – believed that the court was on its side.
“The court is attempting to handle the matter in such a way as to help Father Peter and to avoid scandal to the Church,” the then-Archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, wrote in a letter that would remain hidden for years.