By RFIPalled on 21-02-2019Modified on 21-02-2019 at 17:27

Pope Francis today called for concrete and effective measures to open a new summit dedicated to sexual abuse in the Church. The institution has been shaken for several years by pedophilia scandals, particularly in America and Europe. But not or very little in Africa.

In Africa too, the issue of sexual abuse also challenges the clergy. Although testimonies of victims are rare or nonexistent, Father Gustave Sanvi, Secretary General of the National Justice and Peace Commission of Togo, believes that the continent could not be spared.

" Of course, the media did not reveal this problem in Africa. But I believe that if African bishops, too, were invited, it is an interpellation, he believes, while a summit "on the protection of minors" opened on Thursday at the Vatican. And it's not because it's not said in the media that it does not exist. This has not yet splashed us. We must already take steps to, of course, eliminate this phenomenon before it sparks the Church. "

Father Yves Allangomi, spokesman of the Episcopal Conference of Chad, relativizes. He recalls the cultural differences that could, according to him, explain that for the moment, no pedophilia scandal in the Church has broken out in Africa: " It's true that our approach to sexuality is not the same. something that the Western approach. "

Father Gustave Sanvi nevertheless recognizes that the problem could concern the continent, but not that Catholics: " This is not a problem of the Church. It's a social problem. And it is a problem that destabilizes our society. Those who see victims or abusers must challenge and question themselves. So the approach of the Church around this issue is a questioning process. To see how to be attentive to the victims of pedophilia, sexual abuse in the Church, but also how to help the society in general, to take into account this phenomenon which gangrene our families. "

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