ROME (ITALY)
Crux
February 17, 2019
By Elise Harris
Pope Francis petitioned Catholics Sunday to pray for an upcoming anti-abuse summit at the Vatican, saying he wanted to call the gathering as a response to the “urgent” challenge of clerical sexual abuse.
“From Thursday to next Sunday, there will take place in the Vatican a meeting with the presidents of all bishops’ conferences on the topic of the protection of minors in the Church,” the pope said Feb. 17, and asked Catholic faithful to pray for the summit, which he said he called as “a strong act of pastoral responsibility faced with an urgent challenge in our time.”
The pontiff was speaking at his usual Sunday noontime Angelus address.
The appeal comes days ahead of a Feb. 21-24 summit addressing the global clerical abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, and just a day after the Vatican announced that Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, was dismissed from the clerical state on charges of sexual abuse and harassment.
Described by the pope as a pastoral meeting rather than a decision-making event, the summit will draw the participation of leading prelates, religious superiors and survivors.
Both Francis and several others involved with the summit have previously said expectations are too high, and that while it likely won’t result in sweeping changes, the goal is to at least get everyone on the same page.
However, many, including survivors of clerical abuse want action, and view McCarrick’s defrocking as just the beginning of a larger problem aimed at cracking down not just on clerical abuse but also those who cover it up.
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