ROME (ITALY)
Crux
June 19, 2019
By Inés San Martín
According to Italian Archbishop Franco Coppola, the pope’s ambassador in Mexico, the local Catholic Church still has a long way to go when it comes to addressing clerical sexual abuse, even if much has been done in recent years.
“The attention given to us by the media is very positive, as it forces us to cleanse our Church and our hearts,” he told Crux on Saturday. “We need to cleanse the Church of sexual abuse, as well as abuses of power and conscience, of thinking that it’s OK to take advantage of one’s position to commit a crime that has nothing to do with the faith, the Gospel or the Church.”
“It’s a necessary, even if painful purification,” Coppola said.
The archbishop was in Rome last week taking part in a June 13-15 summit of nuncios called by Pope Francis. He was appointed as papal representative to Mexico less than three years ago, taking over the job from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, currently the nuncio to the United States.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.