ROME
Catholic News Service
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) — Catholic bishops should find out what is keeping sex abuse victims around the world from coming forward, said Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, chairman-elect of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.
U.N. statistics have shown “that sex abuse is widespread and crosses all cultures and societies” and is not just a phenomenon plaguing the church or Western nations, he told Catholic News Service Feb. 13.
A further indication that abuse is a concern for the global church is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s mandate for all bishops to establish anti-abuse guidelines by May this year, he said.
“We as a church, we want to be at the forefront of society in helping to deal with this issue so, even in countries where there have not been allegations of abuse in the church, the church can still be a forceful agent for bringing about change in the larger society,” he said.
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.