The pope prepares for the head of an unprecedented anti-pedederalist summit

This Thursday, February 21, the Vatican will begin a unprecedented anti-federalist summit. The presidents of all the episcopal conferences of the world will participate in the meeting to discuss with Pope Francis the problem of badual abuse of minors by priests and religious.

Francisco intends to set up a protocol of joint action in all the bishoprics of the world to prevent these abuses and put an end to camouflage.

According to the estimates of the victims' badociations – with the data of the state and ecclesial research commissions – they could be between 50,000 and 100,000 minors those who have suffered physical and badual abuse in Catholic institutions around the world.

The working sessions of the Vatican Antipodean Summit will start on Thursday, February 21 and Francisco will be present in each of them. As well there will be ten women on behalf of women's religious orders, in addition to two Vatican officials. In total there will be 160 participants. In addition, some victims will participate who will tell their story of abuse in the first person.

The priest Hans Zollner, one of the main organizers of the summit, announced last week that the meeting will be organized around several themes: Bishops' responsibility, accountability, improved procedures and transparency.

In addition, faced with the concealment by the hierarchies that have been tested in many cases, including Boston (United States), Ireland, Ballarat (Australia) or Chile, much of the work will aim to: teach methods to bishops and the procedures that they must report these crimes. In fact, as Zollner said, it is not so much to change the rules as to maneuver "a change of attitude" because the reforms ordered by Benedict XVI in 2001 and in 2010 " are not sufficient in themselves to deal with such cases ".

He cites the example of the disillusionment that recent cases of pedophilia, such as that of the former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, or the report of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (United States) revealed in more than 300 mistreated priests, among American Catholics. children in the last seven decades. He also spoke about the revelations of the German Catholic Church that, between 1946 and 2014, there were a total of 3,677 cases of badual abuse of children.

Reviews and events in Rome

In parallel with the Vatican summit, the Ending Clergy Abuse network (ECA) will mobilize around 40 victims of these abuses to denounce their cases in Rome during press conferences. The organization intends to carry out protest actions and ask the Holy See to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2014.

One of the victims present at the protest is the Spanish Miguel Hurtado, who when he was 16, he was abused badual acts of a monk from Montserrat Abbey, Andreu Soler. His case was hidden, he reported.

For Hurtado, the meeting that will take place at the Vatican convened by the pope is rather "a cosmetic summit" He believes that "in four days you can not get a lot". "If the Pope took seriously the issue of abuse in the Church I would have organized a synod that would last two or three weeks"he said to Europa Press.

Among the actions planned this week in Rome, stand out a "big protest" in front of the headquarters of the Benedictines in Rome and the delivery of a letter explaining the management of the Abbey of Montserrat in the Hurtado affair; an inquiry will be requested from the Vatican and the dismissal of the abbot.

Although coming from the Vatican they clearly indicate that the focus of this meeting is the protection of minorsit will be inevitable that the clergy will also speak of the abuse of the nuns. The organizers of the meeting acknowledge that, if a change of attitude is achieved in this meeting, "it will also have an impact on violence against women, especially consecrated persons".