Vatican City (EFE).- Pope Francis indicated today to the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors, created during his pontificate, that “now is the time to remedy the damage done to past generations and to those who continue to suffer” by abuses by the clergy.
Words of the pontiff in an expected speech to the members of the organization that are holding their assembly, after the German Jesuit Hans Zollner, one of the greatest experts in the fight against child abuse in the Church, decided to leave this organization, from which had been a part since its creation, after denouncing a lack of transparency and disagreements.
In addition, last week, the former president of Ireland Mary McAleese and the activist and victim of abuse Marie Collins – who also resigned from her position as a member of this commission – asked Francisco by letter for “an independent and external review” of this body created in 2014 and defended Zollner, as published by “The Irish Times”.
“More can be done”
“The Church must strive to become an example of welcome and good behavior,” said the pope, who stressed that “efforts to improve the guidelines and standards of conduct for the clergy must continue.”
Francisco invited the members of the commission to prepare a report “on what they think works well and what does not”, in order to “be able to make the appropriate changes”, and assured that “much has been done in these first six months”, but “that more can be done”.
In his long speech, the pope stated that “the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy and its mismanagement by ecclesiastical leaders has been one of the greatest challenges for the Church in our time” and “not doing what we should to have done, especially by Church leaders, has scandalized many.”
But he defended that “at the same time, however, we have not remained silent or inactive” and recalled his Motu Proprio (papal document) “Vos estis lux mundi”, which introduced the obligations of episcopal conferences to deal with abuses and “that now It is a permanent norm”.
Address inequalities
To the new members of the commission, which is renewed every five years, the Pope asked not to be discouraged and to continue reaching out and encouraging people to continue in the fight against abuses.
He also urged them that “where life is broken” because of abuse, they contribute “concretely to mending the pieces, with the hope that what is broken can be mended.”
And thirdly, “act delicately, bearing each other’s burdens, without complaining, but thinking that this moment of reparation for the Church will give way to another moment in the history of salvation.”
“Now is the time to repair the damage done to the generations that came before us and to those who continue to suffer. The importance of the protection of minors and fragile people must be a norm for everyone”, he pointed out.
He also applauded the commission’s plans to address inequalities within the Church in Africa, Asia and Latin America: “It is not fair that the most prosperous areas of the planet have well-trained and well-funded protection programs while those who live in other parts of the world suffer in silence, perhaps rejected or stigmatized when they try to denounce the abuses they have suffered”, she denounced.