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Pope Francis: "We must fight every single case"
Photo: Evandro Inetti / dpa
Pope Francis has acknowledged that in some countries there are opponents of child abuse measures within the Roman Catholic Church.
"There is resistance, but with every new step the awareness grows that this is the right way," the pontiff said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
For years, the Roman Catholic Church has been shaken by reports of priests sexually abusing children and young people, including in Germany.
Shortly after assuming the pontificate in 2014, Francis set up a child protection commission in the Vatican.
In this year's new Vatican constitution, the body is part of the new Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It reports directly to the Pope.
Regional differences
In 2019, the Pope introduced a global reporting obligation for cases of abuse.
He said at the time that Catholic dioceses around the world would need to set up "one or more permanent and publicly accessible" contact points for complaints by June next year at the latest.
Some countries – including the USA – had already introduced corresponding measures beforehand.
Others, especially some poorer countries, would be slow to adapt.
“We have to fight every single case”
After the revelations of child abuse and cover-ups in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002, the Church has slowly moved towards a zero-tolerance policy and is moving forward, Francis said: "I believe the direction on this matter is irreversible."
The head of the Catholic Church said in the interview that only a small proportion of the priests had molested children and young people.
But he made it clear: »We have to fight every single case.
As a priest, I have to help people grow and save them.
If I abuse, I kill them.
That's terrible.
No tolerance.«
In Germany in January, a report on decades of abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising caused a stir.
It was also the former Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger - the later Pope Benedict XVI.
– accused of misconduct in dealing with perpetrators.
bbr/dpa/Reuters
