Pope Francis on
Wednesday called the heads of the world's bishops' conferences
to a meeting in the Vatican next February on preventing clerical
sex abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
The meeting, from February 21 to 24, will "discuss the
prevention of abuse on minors and vulnerable adults", the deputy
head of the Vatican press office, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, said,
reading a statement from the Council of Cardinals (C9).
The pope's move comes amid a row sparked by a former US
nuncio's claim Francis covered for a former Washington
archbishop accused of sexual misconduct.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Viganò said the pope should resign for
allegedly not implementing alleged sanctions on former cardinal
Theodore McCarrick.
The pope has not dignified Viganò's charges with a denial but
is said to be "embittered" by them.
The Church has been roiled by abuse scandals for decades, the
latest in Pennsylvania where over 1,000 minors were allegedly
raped by 300 priests over the course of 70 years.
Msgr Georg Gaenswein, the personal secretary of former pope
Benedict XVI, on Tuesday compared the crisis the Catholic Church
is enduring due to sex abuse scandals to the impact of the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
"Today is September 11, the date of an apocalyptic disaster
and the Church is looking at its own September 11, full of
dismay, above all, following the Pennsylvania grand jury
report," Gaenswein said during an encounter at the Lower House.
"This catastrophe of ours is linked to many days and years
and to countless victims".
Gaenswein said that during his papacy, Benedict repeatedly
denounced the gravity of paedophilia, calling it an attack on
the Church from within.
On Monday Pope Francis' nine top cardinal advisers, the C9,
said the Holy See was preparing the "necessary clarifications"
about Viganò's charges in the McCarrick affair.
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