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The Vatican has continued to receive a high number of reports of sexual abuse by clerics during Pope Francis\u2019s papacy, according to a new book that also reexamines allegations against several of the pontiff\u2019s top advisers involving coverups or worse.<\/p>\n
The book by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi \u2014 an advance copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, and which is to be published Thursday \u2014 argues that little has changed in the way the church handles sexual abuse cases despite Francis\u2019s creation of a special commission for the protection of minors and a declaration of \u201czero tolerance\u201d of abuse.<\/p>\n
The church \u201cis still afraid of the taboo,\u201d Fittipaldi said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Francis has been credited by some with taking more decisive action on abuse cases than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, did. Francis has set down a process for removing bishops for negligence in the handling of abuse cases and ordered the trial before a church tribunal of a Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic after accusations of sexual abuse surfaced. But Francis also has promoted officials who have been tainted by accusations of abuse or coverups, and the\u00a0Vatican has been accused\u00a0<\/a>of still not doing enough.<\/p>\n Even as it states that the flow of abuse reports has not slackened, the book, titled \u201cLust,\u201d contains few revelations about new cases. Rather, it reexamines church responses to allegations that have mostly been previously aired, occasionally adding fresh details.<\/p>\n Fittipaldi\u2019s work has\u00a0dogged the church before.<\/a> Last year, he was tried in a Vatican court on charges of illegally publishing internal documents in a 2015 book, titled \u201cGreed,\u201d on Pope Francis\u2019s crusade to clean up Vatican corruption and excess. The charges were dismissed on the grounds that Fittipaldi is not a church official and the court therefore had no jurisdiction.<\/p>\n The Vatican declined to comment on the details of the new book, which recounts several long-standing allegations against several members of Francis\u2019s Council of Cardinal Advisers, a group of nine senior officials who have the pope\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n Australian authorities, for instance, have been probing Cardinal George Pell, the top financial adviser to the pope,\u00a0on multiple allegations of sexual abuse.<\/a> Pell has strongly denied the charges. Fittipaldi claims to have unearthed documents showing Pell also sought to financially aid priests who had been jailed on pedophilia charges.<\/p>\n Pell denied the accounts in Fittipaldi\u2019s book, calling them \u201csmears.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe work is not just a particularly shoddy and dated piece of journalism, which merely restates false allegations against the Cardinal in a blatant attempt to blacken his name and reputation, it is simply erroneous on many accounts,\u201d according to a statement issued by Pell\u2019s office.<\/p>\n The book also notes that Francis elevated Cardinal Francisco Javier Err\u00e1zuriz, the former archbishop of Santiago, Chile, to a position on his council despite documents showing Err\u00e1zuriz long ignored sex abuse claims against a priest under his jurisdiction.<\/p>\n