The testimony of abuse moves the pope, the bishops and …

From Rome

"For a Catholic person, the most difficult thing is to be able to talk about badual abuse." At first I thought of going to Sainte-Mère church where they would hear and respect me, but the first thing what they did was to treat me as a liar, and to turn my back and say that I and others are enemies of the Church, "said one of the victims, a South American whose audio message was presented yesterday to the participants of the first global meeting on badual abuse in the Church. inaugurated Pope Francis at the Vatican. And he continued, "I know that they are discussing how to finish, start over, and repair the damage." First, forgiveness, forced pardons no longer work. You who are the doctors of the soul, have sometimes become murderers of the soul, murderers of the faith, "added the victim whose name was not revealed to the press to protect his private life but whose testimony, with others, has strongly excited them. participants, according to some at the informative press conference that took place after the morning session. He concluded: "We see the tip of the iceberg every day, when the church wanted to know it was over, cases continue to happen, because when you see cancer, you have to deal with it. all cancer, not just remove the tumor.You need to do chemotherapy, you need to do radiation therapy and other treatments.The tumor is not removed and now, ready (…) We want a church renewed, without badual abuse (…) Let's cooperate with justice and remove this cancer from the Church, which ends with it ".

The voice of a woman, in this case African, recounted that she had had bad with a priest since the age of 15 and that it lasted thirteen years. years in which she was three times pregnant and the priest had her aborted simply because he did not want to use a condom or a contraceptive method. He helped her financially, but if she did not want to have bad or become a boyfriend, she would hit her. A third testimony, a 53-year-old Eastern European man and priest, stated that he had been abused by a priest who had taught him to read the scriptures and that neither the bishop nor the nuncio had responded to his complaint letters.

"The testimonies were very honest and brutal, and after listening to them, they followed two minutes of silence to meditate on what they said," Hans Zollner, a Jesuit psychologist and Jesuit psychologist, told the press. . "The testimonies of the victims, all from different continents, have affected me a lot," commented the president of the meeting and former Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. They did not stream video, only a video to protect them. "We have all been beaten by the testimony of these powerful and exciting voices," said Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, which shows that it is very important to listen to them. He underlines.

The first session of this global meeting that could open a new stage in the Church was inaugurated by Pope Francis, who invited the participants to discuss in a "sincere and deep" way this evil that afflicts the Church. 39, Church and humanity. But he was very emphatic and emphatic when he said, "We expect from us not simple, up-to-date sentences, but concrete and effective measures" (see below).

The pontiff gave the participants a list of 21 points of reflection, prepared in turn by various Vatican committees and episcopal conferences, as a discussion guide to devise a plan to put an end to the problem. Among these points, there is the need to develop a "vademecum" where the practical steps to follow in case of abuse are indicated; create structures to listen to victims; create procedures for the examination of charges, the protection of victims and the accused's right to defense; inform the civil and canonical authorities of the case; establish special protocols for accusations against bishops. The pope also included the accompaniment and protection of the victims; conduct continuing education courses on this subject for bishops, senior parents, religious, clergy; prevent the lists of accused persons from being published by the diocese before the investigation and the corresponding sentence; to make psychological evaluations of candidates for the priesthood; introduce rules in this regard for seminarians and priesthood candidates; Formulate mandatory codes of conduct for clergy, clergy, military personnel and volunteers, and check their criminal records.

"The 21 points are very important because they are a kind of map to guide our discussion," said Bishop Scicluna, deputy secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and one of the organizers of the meeting on "The protection of minors in the Church ". We are going to talk about these points but I do not think we can answer each of them in a few days, although the Pope insists that we be very precise. "

In his address to the prelates, Scicluna stressed the need to "make a clear diagnosis of causes" to "find effective remedies". Among the factors that contributed to the current crisis, it is mentioned "inadequate procedures to determine the suitability of candidates for the priesthood, the lack of human, moral, intellectual and spiritual training in seminars, trend of the society to favor the clergy and a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church ". The Maltese exhibitor asked to act "urgently" to neutralize these factors.

The Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle, stressed that "the lack of response from us to the suffering of the victims to the point of rejecting them and to cover the scandal to protect the aggressors and the institution, has terribly hurt our people by leaving a deep wound in our relationship with them that we were supposed to protect. "

"There is no possible justification not to denounce, not to unmask, not to face with courage and firmness the abuses that occur in our church," said Colombian Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez, Archbishop of Bogotá and president of Celam. (Latin American Episcopal Council) who spoke in the afternoon.

Interviewed during the interview with the press – which must be repeated every day until Sunday, the last day of the hearing – about whether the abuses are related to the celibacy of the priest or to homobaduality, Father Lombardi said "that abuses are not abuses." they have to do with celibacy. At least until now, this has not been revealed. "While Bishop Scicluna replied that" homobaduality in itself does not predispose to sin, I would never dare to tell a category to say that it has a propensity to sin, we do not believe it. have all and each case is serious in itself ".