PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International
April 10, 2019
By Virginia Saldanha
The voices of survivors and advocates rallying against clerical sex abuse echoed around newsrooms and living rooms the world over when bishops met in Rome from Feb. 18-26, making it a hallowed ground of the wounded. The 190 bishops at the summit heard the testimonies of a few survivors, live-streamed into the hall.
The organizing committee had a face-to-face meeting with 12 survivors in Rome a day before the summit. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich (also a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisors) accepted the invitation of the survivors’ group Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) to interact with victims and advocates from all over the world. At the group’s invitation, I joined the ECA in Rome from Feb. 17-25, representing India and Asia where the voices of abuse survivors are muzzled, muffled and sporadic. At a press briefing on the first day of the summit, not surprisingly, it was reported that the bishops of Asia and Africa stated that sex abuse was not their problem!
This came despite considerable evidence to the contrary. At the outset, the pope handed the participants a list of 21 points for consideration and implementation. The summit focused on the abuse of minors.
Vulnerable adults were implicitly included but the definition was ambiguous. In Asia, the abuse of nuns and vulnerable women, who routinely approach priests in times of trouble, is a big issue, especially for nuns in diocesan congregations.
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