Pope Francis asks not to cover up sexual abuse in the Church

Pope Francis asked this Sunday that cases of sexual abuse in the Church not be covered up, at the close of a difficult visit to Belgium.

“There is no place for abuse, there is no place for covering up abuse, I ask everyone not to cover up abuse, I ask the bishops not to cover up abuse and condemn the abusers and help them heal from this disease” , declared the Supreme Pontiff when presiding over a mass before some 40,000 faithful at the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels.

Meeting with victims of sexual abuse

Francis also referred to the strictly reserved meeting he held on Friday with 17 victims of sexual assault in the Belgian Catholic Church and expressed that he felt “their suffering as abused” and that “in the Church there is a place for everyone, but everyone will be judged.”

“Evil cannot be hidden. The evil must be exposed, made known and the abuser judged, even if it is a layman or a bishop,” he added.

Francis rejected “the shame of the abuse of minors” and maintained that “the Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness.”

He expelled priests, lay people and a bishop

Days ago, Pope Francis made the decision to expel 10 people – a bishop, priests and lay people – from a problematic Catholic movement in Peru following a Vatican investigation that uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

The move against the leadership of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, followed His Holiness’s decision last month to expel the group’s founder, Luis Figari, after it was discovered that he had sodomized his recruits.

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