LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald
July 22, 2019
By Christopher Altieri
Comparing the fight against abuse with the war on drugs, the Pope said Don Bosco’s ‘preventive system’ has much to teach us
Pope Francis has released a video message to participants in a training course designed to teach them how to prevent the abuse of minors.
Under the direction of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Formation for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME), Catholic leaders including those responsible for seminary formation, diocesan vicars-general, religious superiors, and mental health professionals are gathered for three weeks on the campus of the Pontifical University of Mexico in Mexico City to focus on abuse prevention.
Speaking without notes and apparently off the cuff, Pope Francis begins his message by greeting participants, and acknowledging the gravity of the issue. “The protection of minors is a serious problem,” he says. “It is a problem, the shame of which we all know, that it has brought to the Church, that our members have intervened, have acted in these crimes,” Pope Francis goes on to say.
Pope Francis proceeds to frame the issue in terms of scandal, “[T]hat no one should keep them from reaching Jesus.” Francis goes on to say, “Any person — male religious, female religious, lay, bishop — anyone who prevents a child from reaching Jesus, must be stopped in their attitudes, corrected if we are on time, or punished if there is a crime involved.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.