Pope aims to ‘deflate’ expectations for abuse summit, says no to married priests

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

January 28, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Pope Francis has said he wants to “deflate” expectations for his Feb. 21-24 summit for presidents of bishops’ conferences on clerical sexual abuse, saying it’s mostly about transmitting a “catechesis” on the “drama” of abuse.

The pontiff also rejected the idea of optional celibacy for Catholic priests, though he did leave open the possibility of ordaining married men in remote locations and for specific sacramental purposes.

Asked about his expectations for the summit, Francis said the initiative was born in the C9, a group of cardinals that advise him on reform of the government of the Church. Three of those cardinals were removed late last year, two of them over allegations of either covering up abuse or of having sexually abused minors.

“We saw that some bishops didn’t know what to do, didn’t understand, did one thing good and another one bad,” the pope said.

Hence, he said, the C9 felt the need to offer a “catechesis” to bishops’ conferences that would make the “drama of children who’ve been abused” comprehensible.

The second scope of the meeting, Francis said, is to teach bishops how to respond when facing an allegation of abuse by a member of the clergy. Thirdly, he wants the February meeting to lead to “protocols” on how Church leaders should handle abuse cases.

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