• The Pope appoints Juan Carlos Cruz as a member of the commission for the protection of minors: he was a victim of pedophilia

  • Pedophilia.

    The pope removes a Polish bishop

  • Pedophilia, the Pope abolishes the pontifical secret for cases of sexual abuse of minors

Share

May 15, 2021 Pope Francis returns to use words of firm condemnation for the episodes of violence against minors, which also involved the Vatican. Abuses on children are "a plague", a "psychological murder", which cannot be endured, let alone hidden and left unpunished, says Bergoglio, receiving in audience the Meter association, which has been involved since 1989 in the fight against pedophilia in Italy and in other countries. 



Accompanying the group were Cardinal Paolo Lojudice, Monsignor Antonio Staglianò, bishop of Noto, in Sicily, and Don Fortunato Di Noto, founder of Meter, born in a parish of Syracuse. The audience takes place a short distance from the celebration of the 25th "Day of Children Victims of Violence and Abuse", promoted by the same Association and which Francis had encouraged at the Regina Caeli on Sunday 2 May. 



"Your work is all the more necessary because, unfortunately, the abuses perpetrated against children continue. I am referring in particular to the solicitations that take place through the Internet and various social media, with pages and portals dedicated to child pornography. This is a plague. which, on the one hand, requires to be faced with renewed determination by public institutions, the authorities, and on the other it needs an even stronger awareness of families and the various educational agencies. Even today we see how many times in families the first reaction is covering everything; a first reaction that is always present also in other institutions and also in the Church. We have to fight with this old habit of covering ".



The abuse of minors is in many cases a cancellation of childhood ", underlines the Pope, while the protection of children against sexual exploitation is" a duty of all States, called to identify both traffickers and abusers ". at the same time, the denunciation and prevention carried out in the various areas of society, from individuals to schools, sports, recreational and cultural realities, and religious communities are all the more necessary.