DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press
February 15, 2019
By Jeff Karoub and Nicole Winfield
The U.S. archbishop helping to organize next week’s summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican on sexual abuse by clergy said Thursday he expects to make “significant progress” in responding to the scandal that’s riven the church, and that lay Catholics will help to hold the hierarchy accountable.
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the Feb. 21-24 prevention summit, convened by Pope Francis, is necessary for all global Catholic church leaders to understand they must act and be accountable to the victims for the abuse cases stretching back decades. He spoke of the urgency while acknowledging that victims and their advocates consider such a gathering long overdue.
“I think there is understandable frustration on that level,” said Cupich, hand-picked by Francis to help organize the summit. “All I can say now is I believe we’re going to make significant progress here. And we should also realize that we always have to keep learning — we can’t get to a place that we think we have this nailed down. If we do that we’re going to get it wrong.
“This meeting will be a significant moment, I think, to put us on a fresh trajectory — in a whole new direction,” he added.
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.