Pope urges church workers to fight child abuse, even when facing threats

DENVER (CO)
Crux

February 25, 2020

By Inés San Martín

Rome – In a video message sent to an abuse prevention formation center in Mexico, Pope Francis condemned the fact there are people willing to hire a hit man to stop abuse prevention and child protection.

“You will be misunderstood, [some] will tell you are wasting your time,” Francis says in the video sent to the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Formation for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME), an interdisciplinary center for child protection at the Pontifical University of Mexico. “You will be threatened, because there are those who are threatened. More than one will tell you that they are capable of hiring a hit man to clean up the field.”

“Be prudent,” he adds. “Take care of yourselves, but continue to be brave and work. Preventing the abuse of children, the abuse of those who are at a disadvantage due to their social situation or an illness, is an act of love.”

CEPROME works with the Center for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

Standing next to Francis in the video is Father Daniel Portillo, president of CEPROME, who was in Rome recently and who met the pope to discuss the center’s ongoing initiatives.

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