Polish Cardinal Vows to Fight Sexual Abuse

The Leadership
June 20, 2014

http://leadership.ng/news/375298/polish-cardinal-vows-fight-sexual-abuse

Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal said on Friday that every possible step must be taken to put an end to the scourge of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

He made the call in Krakow (Poland) at the opening of a two-day conference for church representatives and lay people to discuss how sexual abuse by priests, against youth can be stopped.

Dziwisz was a close aide to late pope John Paul II, who was accused of not doing enough to tackle clerical sex abuse scandals during his 1978-2005 papacy.

“The church must do everything to make sure these situations are not repeated,” he said.

Catholic Church has been plagued by accusations and guilty verdicts as more and more children have stepped forward to claim they were sexually abused by priests.

The church stands accused of, for years, trying to hide the problem by moving alleged wrongdoers to districts far away from their accusers in an attempt to sweep the controversy under the rug.

In April, Pope Francis issued an unprecedented personal apology for child sex abuse committed by priests.

Earlier in the year, the Vatican was accused of “consistently” covering up those crimes by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Dziwisz said aside from being a crime, sexual abuse has to be stopped because of the negative effects it is having for the church.

“The evil that some have undertaken is coming back to us in the form of mistrust and a lack of confidence.

“A cleansing of the church is neither simple nor pain-free, but there is no other way,’’he added. (dpa/NAN)