"In our ecclesial ministry of protection,
closeness to victims of abuse is not an abstract concept: it is a very concrete reality, made up of listening, interventions, prevention, help
", "it must not happen that these brothers and sisters do not are welcomed and listened to, because this can greatly aggravate their suffering. There is a need to take care of them with personal commitment, just as it is necessary for this to be carried out with the help of competent collaborators".
This is what Pope Francis recommends to the members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, received in audience.
"You have dedicated time and effort to completing the Annual Report on Protection Policies and Procedures in the Church - states the Pope in his speech -, which I asked you to prepare. It should not simply be an additional document, but help us to better understand the work that still awaits us. Faced with the scandal of abuse and the suffering of the victims, we could become discouraged, because the challenge of rebuilding the fabric of broken lives and healing the pain is great and complex. But our commitment must not fail; indeed, I encourage you to move forward, so that the Church is always and everywhere a place where everyone can feel at home and every person is considered sacred".
"To live this service well - he continued - we must make Christ's feelings our own: his compassion", "let us too, let us learn it: we cannot help another to carry his burdens without placing them on our shoulders, without practicing closeness and compassion".
"We are all called, in particular the ecclesiastical authorities - he then urged - to know directly the impact of abuse and to allow ourselves to be shaken by the suffering of the victims, listening directly to their voice and practicing that closeness which, through concrete choices, lifts them up, help and prepare a different future for everyone."
Francis: 'Not educating girls is very serious discrimination'
"In the world, where women still suffer so much violence, disparity, injustice and mistreatment, and this is scandalous, even more so for those who profess faith in the God 'born of woman', there is a serious form of discrimination, which is precisely linked to the education of women".
This is what Pope Francis states in the speech read by a collaborator during the audience with the participants in the International Interuniversity Congress "Women in the Church: creators of the human" which takes place at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, from 7 to 8 March 2024.
The Pope spoke only for the time necessary to impart the blessing, revealing a very tired voice often interrupted by coughs.
Women, he concluded, "are in fact feared in many contexts, but the path to better societies passes through the education of girls and young people, from which human development benefits. Let us pray and commit ourselves for this".
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