VATICAN CITY
GMA News
DARIO TUBURN, Agence France Presse February 4, 2012
VATICAN CITY – Catholic leaders from around the world meet next week for a conference to combat child abuse which will include a penitential service but which has already drawn fire from victims’ groups.
Bishops and their representatives from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 religious orders will take part, as well as the Vatican’s anti-paedophilia prosecutor Charles Scicluna and one abuse victim, Ireland’s Marie Collins.
“All of us must look at the sin and crime of sex abuse and we must face this with humility, courage, reflection and vigilance,” said Francois-Xavier Dumortier of the Vatican’s Gregorian University, which hosts the meeting.
The conference will receive a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI and will launch a Centre for Child Protection in Germany to fight abuse, which Vatican officials underlined was a problem for the Church worldwide.
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