German Cardinal calls for transparency so that Church wins back trust as silence provoked conspiracy theories
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Germany’s top cardinal Reinhard Marx slammed the Catholic Church officials for their response to the decades-long pedophilia scandal at a conference called by Pope Francis in Vatican on Saturday.
“Sexual abuse of children and young people can be traced back, in no small part, to the abuse of power in the area of administration,” Marx said in his address with the pope in attendance. Vatican officials were “trampling on the rights of victims” by deliberately canceling or overriding procedures for investigating child abuse, according to Marx.
“It was not the perpetrators, but the victims who were regulated and pushed into silence,” said Marx, who also serves as the head of German Bishops’ Conference. “The files that documented these horrible acts and could name those responsible were destroyed or not created at all.”
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On Saturday, Cardinal Marx called for transparency in order for the Church to win back “trust,” saying that secrecy provoked “conspiracy theories.”
He urged the Church to redefine its standards of confidentially and make its judiciary more open, as well as report on numbers and details linked with abuse cases. – via DW
Meanwhile a Catholic nun told bishops on Saturday to acknowledge the church’s hypocrisy in its handling of the sexual abuse crisis, and a cardinal admitted case files had been destroyed.
Sister Veronica Openibo, a Nigerian who has worked in Africa, Europe and the United States, spoke with a soft voice but had a strong message for the prelates sitting before her, telling them: “This storm will not pass”.
She delivered her talk at the start of the penultimate day of a Vatican summit of some 200 senior Church officials convened by Pope Francis to confront what he has called the scourge of sexual abuse by the clergy.
“We proclaim the Ten Commandments and parade ourselves as being the custodians of moral standards and values and good behavior in society. Hypocrites at times? Yes! Why did we keep silent for so long?” she said.
She told the pope, sitting near her on the dais, that she admired him because he was “humble enough to change your mind,” apologize and take action after he initially defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse. The bishop later resigned.
“How could the clerical Church have kept silent, covering these atrocities? The silence, the carrying of the secrets in the hearts of the perpetrators, the length of the abuses and the constant transfers of perpetrators are unimaginable,” she said.
