Following the publication of a damning report on pedocrime in the Portuguese Catholic Church, religious leaders have asked for forgiveness.
By VP with AFP
© PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP
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I’Portuguese Catholic Church makes its mea culpa. Religious leaders asked for forgiveness on Friday from victims of sexual violence committed by members of the clergy, following the publication of an independent report on the extent of the phenomenon of pedocrime.
“It is with pain that once again we ask for forgiveness from all the victims of sexual assault within the Catholic Church in Portugal,” the Portuguese bishops’ conference said in a statement read after the meeting. a meeting devoted to this subject in the sanctuary city of Fatima.
“concrete measures”
A “public gesture” expressing this request for forgiveness will be organized in Fatima in April, and a memorial will be created on the occasion of World Youth Days, which will bring together a multitude of young Catholics in Lisbon at the beginning of August.
The Portuguese bishops had promised to take “concrete measures” in response to the conclusions of an independent commission they had appointed at the end of 2021 to shed light on the phenomenon of pedocrime within the Church.
After collecting more than 500 testimonies in the space of a year, this group of independent experts established that at least 4,815 minors had been victims of sexual violence in a religious context since 1950. This violence was concealed by the hierarchy of the Church in a “systemic” way, they added in their conclusions.