Pope Francis expressed his concern with the scale of sex abuse in Roman Catholic institutions so much that he ordered to gather a summit. On Thursday, two hundred senior clerics will gather in Rome to discuss that painful for Church issue.
The sex abuse summit became the first-of-its-kind meeting where the Vatican discusses the ways of exit from the tense situation. Its official title is “Protection of Minors in the Church,” the official Vatican site reported.
The sex abuse scandals all over the world involved many Roman Catholic clerics, so, the Holy See even faced renewed pressure from the U.S. government. The decades of abuse and accusations of cover-ups by church leaders are over, Pope Francis confirmed, the first sex abuse summit will confront the issue in Rome from Thursday to Sunday.
Rome summit’s goal is to make it “absolutely clear” to clergymen how they should prevent and deal with sexual abuse. The pontiff has met with victims of abuse and encourages church leaders to do the same. Some survivors will testify at the meeting, and that will be the most touching and hardest moments.
“For survivors who have been around for 25 years, like me, this is an incredible achievement,” said Peter Isely, the founding member of Ending Clergy Abuse Global. “Years ago, this was inconceivable.”
Church: “We turn to you with deep distress!”
“A decisive act is now urgent and necessary” to end the “plague of the homosexual agenda” in the church that’s organized by networks of protection and a “climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence,” cardinals statement reads.
The scandal was highlighted in the United States last year by a grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania that uncovered more than 1,000 minor victims abused by 300 clergymen over 70 years. That sparked similar inquiries in 14 other states. There was also a mass resignation of bishops in Chile after decades of scandals and cover-ups came to light. According to Vatican analysts, the sex abuse summit was a big blow for Pope Francis.”
