Vatican City: Pope Francis opened Thursday a landmark summit at the Vatican on fighting child sex abuse, stating that the world expected ‘concrete measures’ on tackling paedophilia in the Catholic Church.
The pontiff will dedicate the next three-and-a-half days discussing the Church’s response to child abuse by members of the clergy with bishops from around the world.
“The Holy people of God are watching and waiting not for simple and obvious condemnations but concrete and efficient measures,” he said as the summit opened; the first of its kind. “Let us listen to the cry of the young ones who ask us for justice,” the pope added.
The pope is aiming to tackle the continuing scandal, which again hit the Church in 2018 in countries across the globe, including Chile, Germany and the United States.
The 82-year-old hopes to raise awareness about abuse through prayers, speeches, working groups and testimonies from victims.
“I ask the Holy Spirit to support us in the following days and help us to transform this evil into an opportunity for awareness and purification,” Francis stated.
“May the Virgin Mary enlighten us to try to cure the serious wounds caused by the scandal of paedophilia both in children and in believers,” the pope added.
The summit aims to educate 114 top bishops who will then return home with clear ideas on how to spot and deal with abuse and paedophilia.
The task is made difficult by the fact that some churches, in Asia and Africa in particular, deny the problem exists.
“My hope would be that people see this as a turning point,” said American Cardinal Blase Cupich, one of the pope’s trusted allies in the United States and one of the summit’s four organisers.
The US Catholic Church has been shaken by one of the gravest crises in its history with the defrocking last week by Pope Francis of a former cardinal – American Theodore McCarrick – over accusations he sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago.
Three themes – Responsibility, Accountability and Transparency – form the backbone of the summit and will provide its participants with the keys to ensuring child safety.
In another development in Poland three activists overturned a statue of a Polish priest accused of sex abuse in the northern city of Gdansk early Thursday, local police said.
Video footage on social media showed the men use a rope to topple the statue of Father Henryk Jankowski, who died in 2010 and has faced accusations of paedophilia.
On the fallen statue the men placed underwear and altar boy clothing in reference to the priest’s alleged victims.
Jankowski has faced renewed claims of child abuse since the liberal ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ daily published an article late last year reviving previous accusations which first surfaced years ago.
AFP
