ROME (LifeSiteNews) –– Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), an organization trying to help abuse victims of predatory members within the Catholic Church, premiered a September 27 encounter in Rome with Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the general relator of the upcoming Synod on Synodality, at a conference in Rome on Monday in which the prelate admitted he failed to deliver a proposal from an abuse victim to Pope Francis as he had promised.

In the conversation played at the conference, which LifeSiteNews attended, Hollerich admitted to ECA members Peter Isley and Sarah Pearson to not having yet delivered a letter from an abuse victim which contains a legal document proposing a zero tolerance policy within the Church to ensure that bishops who have covered up for abuser priests are punished.

According to the ECA, “In early September, an abuse survivor presented Cardinal Hollerich with a copy of a Zero Tolerance legislation drafted by canon lawyers who are recognized experts on the issue of abuse within the Church. The legislation proposes the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state for both abusers and those who have covered up abuse. Cardinal Hollerich committed to personally reading the legislation, delivering it to Pope Francis on September 18th, and urging the Pope to seriously consider its contents.”

However, in the September 27 recording, Hollerich admitted to Isley and Pearson that he had not delivered the abuse victim’s proposed legislation to Francis, instead saying, “I shall give it to him [Pope Francis] in December, because that is when I see him. Now I see him with many people together.”

“It will be delivered,” he insisted, later admitting he had not even brought the letter to Rome.

When his interlocutors insisted that the matter is “urgent,” that these type of abuses “are still going on,” and that there are bishops who are still covering up the abuse, Hollerich tried to blame “conservative” bishops in the United States for the Church’s inability to deal with the abuse crisis.

Hollerich then proceeded to say that Francis “will not be able to do much now [about abuse],” but what he can do “is slowly replace the bad bishops” with “better” bishops. Such a statement seemed to imply that Francis has no power to replace those bishops who knowingly and willfully protect priests who are abusing children, which led to Pearson – who herself is an abuse victim – to challenge Hollerich’s view and insist that the problem needs to be dealt with immediately and a “zero tolerance” policy must be implemented. Hollerich seemed to agree with Pearson’s rebuke, saying, “For me, it’s zero tolerance.”

Driving the point home, Pearson pointed out to Hollerich again the importance of reforming Canon Law via a “zero tolerance” policy, as currently there are “no consequences for people who are covering up, and we’ve had friends who have taken their lives.” Pearson also mentioned that there is still immense “suffering” of the victims who “have waited so long for something like this to happen.” Pearson then pleaded for “something concrete” in the way of a “zero tolerance” policy to be put forth “before this Synod that will determine the future of the Catholic Church.”

Justifying the current inaction, Hollerich replies that “The Synod will be next year” and that “it’s just the first step” in the next phase of the Church. Hollerich also stated that “it is not the structure of the Church that the Pope can bow to the bishop,” suggesting that there is nothing that can be done to force Francis’ hand. “The law won’t allow it,” Hollerich added, affirming the statement after Isley protested and asked again whether or not Francis has the ability to stop a bishop’s “criminal behavior.”

When Pearson and Isley insisted that bishops are often the ones who halt the prosecution of abuser priests, Hollerich responded: “I am very sorry, but I have to leave.”

To the plea to give the letter and zero tolerance proposal from the abuse victim to Francis before the start of the Synod, Hollerich stated that he could not do so as he left the letter “in Luxembourg.”

The members of the ECA then also proposed to Cardinal Hollerich an involvement of abuse victims in the Church’s discussion about the zero tolerance policy, to which the cardinal replied that “I am far away from the Pope,” and that “the Pope is surrounded by people at the Curia and there are there every day to tell him what to do.”

“You are in such a position at the Synod that you can do something about it,” was one of the last replies of the ECA members to Hollerich. “But I will be shot,” he replied, “by all the conservative bishops,” Hollerich added, thus coming back to his attempt to blame conservatives for the Church’s poor response to the sex abuse crisis, which was quickly countered by the ECA members who said “please don’t blame this on them.”

The sex abuse victim’s still-not-delivered proposal is part of a wider debate that exists in the Church about the fact that the older Code of Canon Law actually had been harsher with clerical sex abusers than the current Code, and that the current Code should be tightened. The document of the ECA seems to want to address this problem in addition to wanting a larger discussion convened on the matter. The proposed new Canon Law statute states:

§2. A bishop, priest, deacon, or a person who is a member of an institute of consecrated life or a society of apostolic life, or a church lay employee, or a church volunteer who has committed an offense against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, i.e. sexual offenses, including the production of or possession of pornographic material, if the offense was committed by force or threats or publicly, or with a minor below the age of eighteen years, or with a vulnerable adult (see definition below) incurs the penalty of permanent prohibition against exercising any and all forms of ecclesiastical ministry, and further is to be dismissed from the clerical state, from religious life, from church lay employment or from church volunteer activity.

Importantly, the proposal also adds a new paragraph stating that the same penalty should be applied to bishops who cover up the abuses committed by one of their subordinates.

As LifeSite’s Rome Correspondent Michael Haynes reported, the ECA had come to Rome ahead of the October 4-29 Synod on Synodality not just for their conference, but also to protest Pope Francis’ elevating Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez to the College of Cardinals. The group is representing sex abuse victims from 26 countries.

“Archbishop Fernández is the last person that should be running the office that is in charge of all the cases of clergy rape and sexual abuse around the world,” said Isley, himself also a victim of sexual abuse and a founding member of ECA. “How do we know this? Well, you look at a person’s past record.”

Liz Yore, founder of Yore Children, an organization aimed at protecting children from abuse, gave LifeSite her own impression of these new revelations. She especially points out the lack of sincerity on the part of Pope Francis and his collaborators when it comes to child abuse.

“On the eve of the Synod, the faithful have listened to the constant drumbeat of the importance of ‘listening and dialogue’ from Francis and the Synodal fathers, including Cardinal Hollerich,” she wrote, but concluded: “It is a ruse.”

“There is no listening and no dialogue with the global victims of clergy abuse. Throughout the decade of this pontificate, the voices of the victims of clergy abuse have been silenced, mocked, and ignored. I have watched while bishops who protect predator priests are elevated, and abusing bishops and cardinals are protected by Francis. He gives lip service to ‘zero tolerance’ while he and his synodal chieftains ignore the most pressing problem facing the Catholic Church. This papacy will go down in ecclesial history as the worst in cleaning up the clergy abuse scandal.”

“Could it be,” Liz Yore who is also a member of LifeSite’s Faith & Reason show wondered, “that the ongoing push of the LGBT agenda at the Synod for Synodality and the simultaneous disinterest in the clean-up of the sex abuse scandals have an unwitting connection?”

Michael Haynes, who attended today’s ECA press conference, contributed to this report.