2023-08-02 23:35:00
August 2, 2023 / 4:35 pm
Pope Francis received this Wednesday, August 2, at the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon (Portugal), a group of 13 victims of abuse.
“Tonight, at the end of the institutional meetings and with the Church, Pope Francis received a group of 13 people at the Nunciature, victims of abuse by members of the clergy,” said a statement from the Office. Vatican Press.
The victims attended the meeting with the Holy Father “accompanied by some representatives of the institutions of the Portuguese Church in charge of the protection of minors,” the text adds.
“The meeting took place in a climate of intense listening and lasted more than an hour, ending shortly after 9:15 p.m.” (local time), the statement from the Holy See ends.
On July 20, the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, reported that indeed the Pope would meet, within the framework of World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023, in a “private and reserved” manner with a group of victims.
The Cardinal explained that the decision had been made to do so to protect “the privacy of these people.”
In February of this year, the independent Commission for the study of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church in Portugal presented its final report, which indicates that between 1950 and 2022 there were at least 4,815 victims. Until October 2022, it received 564 testimonials, of which 512 were validated.
On more than one occasion, the Holy Father has met, during his apostolic trips, with victims of abuse, such as when he visited Chile and Ireland.
“We all know and we know the statistics, I will not tell them, but if it were only a priest who abused a boy or a girl, this is monstrous, because that man has been chosen by God to take the child to heaven,” he warned. the Holy Father in 2018 upon returning from his trip to the Baltic countries.
Walter Sánchez Silva is a senior writer at ACI Prensa, with more than 15 years covering Church events in Europe, America and Asia.
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