Francis addressed the scandal dealing with the Portuguese church on Wednesday - the primary day of a five-day go to to Lisbon for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day pageant.
His go to comes after a panel of consultants employed by Portugal’s bishops reported in February that monks and different church personnel might have abused no less than 4,815 girls and boys since 1950.
After the doc’s launch, the bishops initially refused to take away named abusers from ministry and mentioned they might solely compensate victims if courts ordered them to.
The Vatican mentioned Francis met with 13 abuse victims for greater than an hour on the Vatican Embassy on Wednesday and characterised the pope’s function within the assembly as one among “intense listening.”
The victims had been accompanied by church personnel accountable for baby safety programmes.
The assembly got here after Francis presided over a vigil service for Portuguese clergy and nuns on the capital’s iconic Jeronimos Monastery, the place in February lots of of individuals had gathered after the report was launched to hope for victims.
“It is often accentuated by the disappointment and anger with which some people view the church, at times due to our poor witness and the scandals that have marred her face and call us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to,” he mentioned.
Francis demanded that bishops reply higher to victims by accepting them and listening to them.
Bishop Jose Ornelas, the top of the Portuguese bishops’ convention, promised in a speech earlier than Francis spoke to dedicate “our special attention to the protection of the welfare of children and the undertaking to protect them from all kinds of abuse.”
The Portuguese Catholic Church additionally promised in March to construct a memorial to victims that might be unveiled throughout World Youth Day, however organisers scrapped the plan a number of weeks in the past.
In its place, victims’ advocates launched a marketing campaign referred to as “This is our memorial.”
Hours earlier than the pope arrived, they put up a billboard in central Lisbon studying “4,800+ Children Abused by the Catholic Church in Portugal.”
Francis got here to Lisbon to take part in his fourth World Youth Day, the raucous Catholic jamboree launched by St John Paul II within the Eighties to invigorate the subsequent era of Catholics of their religion.
More than 1,000,000 younger folks from all over the world had been anticipated to attend the occasions in Lisbon, which run till Saturday.
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