What should the Church do in the face of abuse? | Enter …

Being a woman in the Church, having an important role, has never been easy. And women working for the Vatican recognize it. Some things started to change with Pope Francis. And at this international meeting on badual abuse entitled "The Protection of Minors in the Church", held at the Vatican, three women were invited to exhibit. A European, an African and a Latin American. "To invite a woman to speak is not to enter the modality of ecclesiastical feminism (…) No. To invite a woman to speak of the wounds of the Church, it is to invite the Church to speak about herself about her wounds (…) Because the Church is a wife, wife and mother, "said Pope Francis yesterday afternoon. of which the first woman of the meeting speaks, Professor Linda Ghisoni. And then he added: "It is about integrating in our thought the woman as a figure of the Church".

Valentina Alazraki, Mexican journalist and writer, correspondent for Televisa News before the Holy See, it is Latin America that will intervene this afternoon before this conference in which participate 190 bishops, cardinals, nuns and prelates from around the world. Author of several books as In the name of love, The eternal light, Journey to the heart of faith, Mexico always faithfulamong others, Alazraki, who spoke with Page 12, has lived in Italy since 1974 and is probably the most traveled journalist with the pontiffs of the last decades: 100 of the 104 apostolic journeys of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francisco.

– What do you think of what is happening in the Vatican regarding abuse?

– What seems important to me is that for the first time bishops from around the world are gathered to debate this issue. After speaking with bishops from different countries, it gave me the impression that the sensitivity to this question is very different, very varied. There are countries where bishops have become aware of the problem and are trying to solve it. And there are countries where even today, the bishops say that it is not a problem for their country. Hundreds of cases have exploded in some and in other countries, the Church does not even badume the problem. I believe that diversity creates serious problems. I do not think that they will magically come out of this meeting at the Vatican, convinced that the problem exists everywhere. The first step is to badume that it is a global problem. If it did not explode, it was that he did not speak because the victims did not have the courage to go out to report the incident. ;incident.

– What are the points that you would consider essential for a future work plan of the Church in this area?

-Every country is different The Vatican has already developed standards that do not apply or are poorly enforced. That is why the vademecum that Pope Francis spoke on the first day of the meeting is necessary. Then everyone will understand what is the procedure to follow. It is necessary to specify one essential point which is the collaboration with the civil authorities. It is necessary to specify what is the responsibility of the bishop before the civil justice. The other problem is the relationship with the victims. If victims are not the priority, they will not know how to deal with the problem. Victims are not enemies of the Church.

-What is the situation in Mexico with regard to badual abuse?

– In Mexico, the big problem was Marcial Maciel (founder of the Legionaries of Christ, accused of pedophilia and having two women and children and forced by the Vatican to withdraw in a life of prayer in 2006. He died a little after). After him, isolated cases surfaced. The president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, Rogelio Cabrera, who is in Rome, said that 152 priests had been removed from the priesthood. But the names are not known. This is the tip of the iceberg. Not all cases have arrived yet. We do not even know how many exist because each diocese has its jurisdiction. Nothing knows a diocese of what happened in the other, even if they belong to the same episcopal conference. And that's a problem because every bishop deals directly with the Vatican. This is why in Mexico we ask that the Episcopal Conference enjoy greater autonomy from the Vatican. This is another problem that should be solved in order to map the situation in a specific country.

-After all these years of working in the Vatican, have you heard of many complaints?

– I have no evidence that they were numerous or few. I only knew big business. But I do not have any evidence to say that there have been other cases behind them. In any case, there is a system in the Church, as well as in the Vatican, from top to bottom, which suggests that there may be more cases of concealment. But this is just a theory.

-What do you think is the immediate measure that the Vatican should take?

-There are many, but transparency is one of them. In this crisis, one of the problems encountered is communication. When there is no transparency, people think that all charges are true even if they are not proven. The credibility of the Church has been questioned not only by abuse and concealment, but also by the lack of transparency in communicating the facts. When silence is preferred, people think you are hiding something. Earlier we will also need to clarify the relationship with civil justice.