- Tweeter
republish
The "Summit on the protection of minors in the Church", a highly anticipated meeting, opens this Thursday morning at the Vatican. Some 190 participants from around the world will meet for three days in Rome. This is a crucial international summit for the Church undermined by scandals of sexual abuse of minors.
With our special correspondent in Rome , Geneviève Delrue
At the end of last summer, after revelations of a new scandal of pedophile priests in the United States, Pope Francis and his council of cardinals decided to convene an international meeting.
They are 114 presidents of episcopal conferences: 36 from Africa, 32 from Europe, 24 from the Americas and 18 from Asia. This summit was prepared beforehand by an organizing committee.
In December, the participants received a questionnaire to assess their awareness on this issue and they were asked to meet victims because after decades of denial and silence, it is a collective awareness of the problem. drama of sexual abuse and the responsibility of each bishop in question.
Each will leave with a roadmap to end the wanderings of the past, and know how to solve the case of an abusive priest. Harmonizing this global awareness is a real challenge. But the future of the Church is at stake.
►France: several cases of pedophilia in the Church in recent years
For twenty years, three cases of pedophilia in the Church have been particularly exposed in France. First there is Father Bissey in Lisieux, sentenced in 2000 to 18 years of imprisonment for pedophilia. More recently, last year, Father Pierre de Castelet, in Orléans, was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Finally, the last big case pedophilia date, that of the priest Bernard Preynat, the diocese of Lyon. He is accused of raping dozens of young Scouts in the 1980s.
Some of these actions were even covered by Cardinal Barbarin, whose trial took place a few weeks ago, the decision put under advisement.
But the Preynat file marks a break in France. Thirty years after the events, victims of the priest found themselves to create an association, "The liberated speech". And it is precisely the release of this word of victims of pedophilia in recent years that allows to draw a more accurate picture across the country. Today, Vatican specialist journalist Bernard Lecompte estimates that 8 to 9 cases a year of pedophile priests in the catholic church.
RFI
"The victims are not going to be quiet anymore, no one can stop us"
A group of sexual assault victims met Wednesday with organizers of the Rome summit to demand justice. Among them, a Chilean, Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the main victims of the ex-Catholic priest Fernando Karadima. He entrusted his expectations to RFI.
" We can not wait anymore. Either things are moving forward now or nothing is changing. Because in reality, all this should have been on the table a long time ago. I do not blame the pope, but the bishops. For the pope says one thing, and the bishops do something else, and want something else.
Now the pressure is on the bishops and it is up to them to do the right thing. I think that Chile is a model for the Church, that is to say with bishops who have covered acts, bishops who have sexually abused people, and finally bishops who have left the Church. For me, it's very important. I think that the Chilean model will be useful for it to snowball, that it grows so much that no one can stop it. Because the survivors, the victims, will not be quiet anymore, no one can stop us. "
Interview by Paula Estañol