PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International
Nov. 19, 2019
By Lucie Sarr
La Croix Africa conducted a survey to find out how Pope Francis’ motu proprio, Vos estis lux mundi (You are the light of the world), has been received in Africa and how the African bishops’ conferences have absorbed its message to tackle sexual abuse in the Church.
“Our local culture is sometimes a culture of shame. If there are subjects we are not sure about, we do not know how to talk about them,” Burkinabe Jesuit Father Paul Béré, a teacher at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, said in June.
The 2019 Ratzinger Prize winner analyzed the resistance in Africa to the issue of sexual abuse in the Church. He also felt that the binding nature of Pope Francis’ motu proprio, published in May, would be an opportunity for Africa to overcome the cultural barriers to managing sexual abuse.
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