A cardinal acknowledged that the Catholic Church "destroyed" records of sexual abuse

The Catholic Church has destroyed records on badual abusers, today acknowledged German Cardinal Reinhard Marx at a historic Vatican summit on the fight against pedophilia.

"The archives that could have documented these terrible acts and the names of those responsible have been destroyed or even not created," said the president of the German Bishops' Conference.

"The badual abuse of children and young people is due, in no small part, to the abuse of power of the administration," said the German cardinal during his speech to the summit participants, including 114 presidents of episcopal conferences the world also called to speak of the silence and concealment of pedophilia on the part of the hierarchy of the Church.

"Instead of punishing the guilty, it is the victims who have been reprimanded and silenced," he lamented.

"The procedures and procedures established to prosecute these crimes have been deliberately ignored, even erased or canceled," he insisted.

"In fact, the rights of victims have been trampled and left to the free will of individuals," denounced Cardinal Marx.

The German cardinal, known for his progressive positions, has criticized the fact that the "pontifical secret" is often presented as a justification by the Church and even worse in cases such as badual abuse perpetrated by priests.

The cardinal called for greater transparency of the trials conducted by the Church and demanded that the number of cases examined by the ecclesiastical courts and the details concerning them be disclosed.