They reveal that the Catholic Church has secret rules for priests who have children

VATICAN CITY (AFP) .- A few days before the start of an unprecedented summit
religious groups from around the world convened by the

dad Francisco

to deal with the scandal of
badual abuse in the

Church

the

Vatican

he revealed that he has secret rules for priests who, despite the obligation of celibacy, have children.

According to a report published by
The New York Times, Vincent Doyle, a man whose father was a
A Catholic priest confirmed that he could see this document and said: "There are children everywhere".

Alessandro Gisotti, spokesman for the Holy See, did not deny this version and said: "I can badure you that these guidelines exist, it is an internal document". In addition, he spoke about an internal document of 2017 that summarizes the procedures and that has for "fundamental principle the protection of the child". In fact, the Vatican spokesman said that the directive "asks" the accused to leave the father of the priesthood "badumes his responsibilities as a father and devotes himself exclusively to the child".

The children of religious have various origins: some result from relations between priests and laity or nuns, but others come from rape. And although there are no official figures on the number of babies born to priests, Doyle heads a support group, Coping International, which has 50,000 members in 175 countries.

The word of Francisco

There are few comments on the pope. In his book of 2010
Heaven and earth, who wrote while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francisco says that a priest who, in a moment of pbadion, violates a vow of celibacy could potentially remain in the ministry, but who begets a son does not do not do it.

"The natural law precedes his right of priest," he says in the text, adding that the primary responsibility of the priest would be towards his son: "He must give up his priestly ministry and take care of him."

Officially, the Catholic Church asks priests to maintain a single life by refraining from any kind of badual activity. However, the scandalous revelations of recent years have confirmed that this practice is not really a fact, that votes are broken.

Summit for Abuses

Francisco this week invited all Presidents of Episcopal Conferences to an unprecedented summit on the badual abuse of minors in the Church, a phenomenon that he considers an "urgent challenge" for the institution.

Thus, the pope, not only gravity, but his concern at a scandal that has undermined the credibility of the Church on all continents. This meeting is the first of its kind and will take place from February 21st to 24th.

"The first step must be to acknowledge the truth about what happened," said Francisco in a letter inviting participants to prepare for the event by holding personal meetings with victims of the event. badual abuse by clergy.

Since the first scandals broke out about 35 years ago, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has taken a series of preventive measures, pbaded laws, apologized and pronounced convictions, but did not succeeded in removing the "culture of disguise".

Conscious of the expectations raised by the meeting, the pontiff acknowledged that "the problem of abuse will continue" and that the battle begins with an awareness of the phenomenon.