At the moment a cardinal pauses while delivering a speech at the Vatican summit on pedophilia

For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, religious leaders gathered at the request of Pope Francis to talk about a heinous crime that undermined the credibility of the institution around the world and has been hidden and denied for decades.

The summit on the protection of minors began Thursday with a moment of prayer followed by a heartbreaking video with the testimonies of five victims from five continents and the introductory words of the pope, whose pontificate was eclipsed by the growing number of complaints in the United States, Chile, Australia, Spain, among other countries.

Subsequently, the Cardinal Luis Tagle from the Philippines, delivered a speech in which he could not contain emotion when he was referring to abuse.

"The wounds of the recent crisis brought a memory of innocent suffering, but also brought our sins and weaknesses to memoryhe said, his voice breaking.

After asking that the present rulers be "healers", he also asked the victims to strengthen themselves in the faith.

The greatest expectation is placed in the speech made by the pope Sunday at the end of the work.

Despite the promised hard hand and the introduction of the crime against minors at the beginning of the pontificate, Francisco did not obtain during these six years the concrete support of episcopates to fight against pedophilia with civilian judicial weapons, with a few exceptions. The organizers of the summit hope that it will announce a series of short, medium and long term measures.

(With information from AFP and EFE)