VATICAN CITY — At a Mass marking the end of an unprecedented Vatican summit, Pope Francis on Sunday called for an “all-out battle” against clerical sexual abuse, saying the church needed to take “every necessary measure” to end the scourge.
“No abuse should ever be covered up — as was often the case in the past — or not taken sufficiently seriously,” Francis said.
Speaking at a gilded and frescoed hall at the Vatican, Francis’s remarks were a parting reminder for the world’s leading bishops who gathered in this city-state for a four-day meeting.
But the pontiff’s words, short on specific steps the church will take going forward, underscored the looming challenges for an institution that has long acknowledged the seriousness of clerical abuse but nonetheless struggled to curtail it.
Francis mentioned unspecified “legislation” that the Catholic Church will draw up, and said it will “spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice” whoever has committed the “crimes” of abuse. He called for national-level episcopal conferences to strengthen and review guidelines. Those conferences were asked in 2011 to draw up such protocols, but not all followed the request.
In a speech heavily footnoted with data from international organizations, the Argentine pontiff spoke in sweeping terms about abuse, describing the underlying reasons victims are fearful to speak out, and the fallout they face as adults, including “bitterness” and “suicide.” Francis called child abuse a “worldwide phenomenon” that is “all the more grave and scandalous in the church,” incompatible with its “moral authority and ethical credibility.”
“We are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth,” Francis said.
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