A cardinal told the Vatican summit that the church "destroyed" records of sexual abuse

The Catholic Church has destroyed records on perpetrators of badual abuseGerman Cardinal Reinhard Marx acknowledged on Saturday the third day of the Vatican's historic summit on the fight against pedophilia.

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

"Sexual abuse of children and young people is due, in no small part, to the abuse of power by the administration"badured the German cardinal in his speech to the summit participants. Among them, there are 114 presidents of episcopal conferences around the world, also called to speak of the silence and concealment of pedophilia by the hierarchy of the Church.

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

"Procedures and procedures established to prosecute these crimes have been deliberately ignoredand even deleted or canceled, "he insisted.

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

The German cardinal, known for his progressive positions, 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 more transparency on the trials carried out by the Church and demanded that the number of cases examined by the ecclesiastical courts and the details concerning them be disclosed.