FATIMA, Portugal – Portugal’s Catholic Church on Friday requested victims of kid sexual abuse by the clergy for forgiveness, following the publication of an unbiased report that set out the extent of the offenses.
The damning report on little one sexual abuse final month reported that clergy had abused practically 5,000 kids since 1950.
The Portuguese inquiry, commissioned by the Church within the staunchly Catholic nation, revealed its findings after listening to from greater than 500 victims final yr.
“It is with sorrow that we once again ask forgiveness from all the victims of sexual assaults within the Catholic Church in Portugal,” the bishops’ convention mentioned in an announcement after a gathering in Fatima, central Portugal.
The Church would make a “public gesture” to ask forgiveness in Fatima in April, the assertion added. A memorial to the victims was additionally being deliberate.
The report mentioned that for years, the hierarchy within the Portuguese Church had systematically lined up the abuse.
“We have to change the culture of the Church,” Jose Ornelas Carvalho, bishop of Leiria-Fatima and president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) mentioned at a news convention.
The Church would provide assist to victims of abuse who needed it, he added, however mentioned the query of compensation can be a matter for the courts.
‘Safe areas’
The abuse scandal is simply the most recent in a collection of such revelations engulfing the Catholic Church internationally.
Faced with a large number of clergy intercourse abuse instances which have come to gentle worldwide and the accusations of cover-ups, Pope Francis promised in 2019 to root out pedophilia inside the Church.
The Church has launched investigations in a number of different international locations, together with Australia, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
In an announcement broadcast on Twitter Thursday, the pope made it clear that asking for forgiveness, whereas vital, wouldn’t be sufficient. “The Church must serve as a model to help solve the issue,” he mentioned.
“The Church must offer safe spaces for victims to be heard, supported psychologically, and protected.”
The bishop’s convention agreed on Friday to arrange a brand new physique to place these concepts into motion, following one of many suggestions of the unbiased report.
In an open letter revealed on Thursday, progressive parts within the Church known as for it to implement the principle suggestions.
Any members of the clergy accused of abuse who had been nonetheless serving must be suspended, the letter mentioned — and people bishops who had helped cowl up the abuse ought to go.
The report’s authors have supplied the Church hierarchy with an inventory of clerics accused of getting carried out the abuse.
But Bishop Ornelas instructed reporters Friday: “We have only received a list of names, without describing the nature of the accusations.
“Each bishop must determine what measures to soak up the sunshine of civil and canonical legislation.”
Pope Francis is because of go to the Portuguese capital Lisbon in August, and the capital’s auxiliary bishop, Americo Aguiar, has mentioned he might meet a number of the victims of abuse. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
