The chiaroscuro of the pope's summit | Among the p …

PageI12 in Italy

From Rome

After three days of speeches by prelates from different countries and three women, discussions of language groups and proposals, the meeting ended yesterday at the Vatican on badual abuse in the church which counted with the participation of 190 cardinals, Bishops, priests and nuns around the world, according to the victims have not given the expected results, according to the Vatican was an important first step that will have its first concrete effects in a short period of time.

The meeting not only dealt with the issue of the abuse of minors by church representatives and what can be done for them, but it also revealed an even greater atrocity, the fact that these acts criminals had been disguised by the bishops or cardinals to whom the denunciations were presented. In this sense, the president of the German episcopal conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, member, besides the C9 – the committee of cardinals who advises Pope Francis – and who was one of the speakers of the conference at the Vatican, has denounced As in other parts of the world, the Church has systematically destroyed the literature denouncing pedophile priests. According to some Italian badysts, the denunciation of Cardinal Marx is not fortuitous and suggests that within the Vatican and the Church in general, there are strong currents that oppose the transparency which Pope Francis wishes to lead in this respect.

"I would like to reaffirm clearly that if in the Church we discover a single case of abuse, which is already a monstrosity, such a case will be faced with the greatest seriousness," said Pope Francis yesterday in his speech . the meeting and as to give an idea of ​​what will be the "zero tolerance". He added, "The purpose of the church will be to listen to, protect, protect and care for abused, exploited or forgotten children no matter where they are."

After the Mbad celebrated by Francisco as the conclusion of the meeting in the Vatican Salia Regia, the Pope proceeded to a sort of badessment of the situation of badual abuse in the world and mentioned eight key points that I would like to know. Church will follow now. Among them, the "guardianship of children", giving priority to victims of abuse; "Serious Irreproachable" in the handling of cases because "the Church will spare no effort to do justice to anyone who has committed such crimes and will not seek to conceal or underestimate a case" ; a "formation of priests" cautious; "the guidelines" will be verified in this way for episcopal conferences and "accompany" abused people.

Before drawing these conclusions, Francisco gave a general overview of child abuse around the world, taking data from different human rights and child protection organizations. The first truth from the data available – in Latin America, no country was mentioned because there is apparently no reliable data – is that whoever commits physical, badual or emotional abuse are mainly parents, parents, husbands of wives / daughters. , coaches and educators and environments are the domestic, neighborhood, school, sports clubs and ecclesiastical environments, said the pope. Official data from the US government, for example, speaks of 700,000 children who are victims of badual abuse or badual abuse each year. In Europe, the WHO (World Health Organization) estimated in 2013 that 18 million children had been victims of abuse. The pope also mentioned that in recent years, the development of the Internet and media have allowed badual abuse online, sometimes ordered and tracked directly on the web. The other topic that he mentioned was "bad tourism". According to data from the World Tourism Organization, every year, three million people travel to other countries to have bad with minors. The most common destination countries, according to a footnote of the Pope's speech, but not mentioned by Francisco, are Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Thailand and Cambodia. The attackers come mainly from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and China. , Japan and Italy.

"We are facing a universal problem, but we must be clear: the universality of such a plague, while confirming its seriousness in society, does not diminish its monstrosity in the Church," he said. highlighted. "The inhumanity of the phenomenon in the world is even more serious and scandalous in the Church, because it contrasts with its moral authority and its ethical credibility," added the pontiff, who ended his message in calling for a fight in all respects "against badual and other abuses committed by minors in all areas, by all authorities and individuals, because these are abominable crimes that must be eliminated from Earth. "

Despite the words and promises of Pope Francis, some organizations of victims of abuse in the Church, received a few days ago by the pontiff himself, said they did not agree and think that this meeting had not served at all. A few meters from the Vatican press office, where today are hundreds of journalists from around the world, and a few minutes after the end of the pope's speech, representatives of two organizations, Rete L 'Abuso d & rsquo; Italy and CEA (Ending Clergy Abuse, the badociation bringing together victims from around the world) said it was disappointed by the results of the Vatican meeting.

"It seems to me that this meeting was not even a starting point such as some have presented," Italian press Francesco Zanardi, president of Rete L 'Abuso, told the press. . Here, the Church declares herself a victim. And if she is considered a victim, while she is a plaintiff in the lawsuits against pedophile priests, she does not hide it. "Zanardi, 48, was abused by a priest and is now considered a great" hunter "of pedophile healers.

Spanish Spokesman Miguel Hurtado, spokesman for ECA, said, "The pope spent half of his speech talking about abuses committed outside the Church." We were mistreated within the Church. by Catholic priests, nuns and teachers, we expected an answer that the Pope did not give us ". He added: "Today, Pope Francis has defeated all the victims of pedophilia from the five continents who have come to Rome to ask for explanations." Hurtado, originally from Barcelona, ​​is a psychiatrist who denounced the abuses committed by a monk from Montserrat Abbey in Catalonia at the age of 16.

At the press conference that ended the meeting, the moderator, Fr Federico Lombardi, said that the Vatican was working on a motu propio del papa (pontiff's exclusive decision document) on the protection of minors, in a new law on this subject for the Vatican City and directives for the diocese of Rome (whose pope is the bishop). In addition, he said, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is currently completing its "vademecum", which will include all indications for bishops and standards for the treatment of pedophile cases and the protection of victims. Likewise, he concluded, the Vatican will contribute to the creation of several "special teams" in different countries, to help people and dioceses who can not afford to cope with these problems.