VATICAN CITY
Herald Malaysia
VATICAN CITY: The Pope recently met two Italian victims of clerical abuse, one of them was a child when the abuse took place and the other an adult. This is according to Fr. Hans Zollner, a German psychologist, Jesuit and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that met from 5 to 11 September in the Vatican. He supported the idea of instituting a prayer day for paedophilia victims, proposed a model for helping national Bishops’ Conferences to further improve anti-abuse guidelines and said he was satisfied with the recent papal document on the responsibility of bishops and other Church superiors in this field. The Commission will also soon be launching its very own website. Its members were invited for the first time to a refresher course for bishops in the Vatican.
“Two Italian victims of abuse attended a meeting with the Holy Father as part of last Saturday’s Jubilee Audience,” Fr. Zollner told Vatican Radio. During the course of the meeting two books were delivered to him, both published this year in Italian: “Giulia e il lupo” (Julia and the wolf) by Luisa Bove, with a preface by Hans Zollner (Ancora editrice) and “Vorrei risorgere dalle mie ferite” (I want to rise from my wounds) by Anna Deodato (EDB). Last April, these two books were presented to the San Fedele cultural foundation in Milan. The first book, Zollner explained, “is about the experience of a young woman who was abused by a priest in Italy. This is the first book published in Italian, in Italy, about an experience in Italy. The other book is about consecrated women who are abused by priests. From what these two ladies told me, the Pope was shocked and asked to be updated on this too. So I think that from what we have seen and heard in recent years, under Francis pontificate as well as Pope Benedict’s, the Popes have shown deep personal concern, empathy and closeness to people in great difficulty as well as to those who have suffered sexual abuse by a member of the clergy.”
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