News / Society

Vatican defends action on allegations of child sexual abuse

Saturday, 05 March 2016 10:08 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 05 March 2016 10:07 AM ]

Pope Francis prays during a penitential ceremony, March 4, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The Vatican has defended its record on dealing with allegations of pedophilia by priests, admitting however that more needs to be done in many of the countries where such allegations are made against priests.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement on Friday that Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI had shown “courageous commitment” to acting on child abuse allegations against priests in several countries, “such as the United States, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.”

“There is resistance and there are difficulties, but the path to follow has become clearer,” he said.

He said the media hype surrounding ongoing hearings on allegations of abuse as well as the sensationalism caused by a popular movie on the matter have given some people the wrong impression about the Vatican’s action on cases of pedophilia.

The movie, named Spotlight, depicts an American daily’s attempts to investigate allegations of child abuse by priests and alleged efforts by the Catholic Church to cover up such cases. The movie won the Oscar award for best picture in February.

Australian Cardinal George Pell speaks to the media at the Quirinale hotel in Rome on March 3, 2016. (AFP photo)

The media hype surrounding the two events “meant that most people, particularly those less well informed or with a short memory, think the Church has done nothing or very little to answer to these horrible tragedies.”

“An objective consideration,” Lombardi said, would show that such an assumption is “not true.”

He went on to list steps taken by the Church to meet with victims, draw up guidelines for bishops and update canonical procedures and laws.

Victims of abuse at the hands of the priests say, however, that the Church has not done enough to address the issue.

Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser, Australian Cardinal George Pell, is attending an ongoing investigation by the Canberra-appointed Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He has been accused of having had knowledge of at least two priests but denying the knowledge as an explanation for his lack of action.

Lombardi said that Pell gave “a dignified and coherent personal testimony,” and the result was “an objective and lucid picture of the errors committed in many church environments in the previous decades.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals over the past few years, involving allegations of child sex abuse by priests and cover-up attempts by priests in high positions.

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