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Clear response to abuse crisis is urgently needed cardinal says

VATICAN (CNS): “Recent events in the Church have us all focused on the urgent need for a clear response on the part of the Church for the sexual abuse of minors” and vulnerable adults, said Sean Cardinal O’Malley, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on September 9.
 
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Penitential plea at Mass in Dublin

DUBLIN (CNS):  “We ask forgiveness for the abuse in Ireland, abuse of power and of conscience, sexual abuse” Pope Francis prayed before celebrating the concluding Mass of the World Meeting of Families Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, on August 26. 
 
“In a special way, we ask forgiveness for all the abuse committed in the different institutions run by religious men and religious women and other members of the Church.”
 
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Outcry of the abused cannot be silenced pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS): “The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced,” Pope Francis said in an August 20 letter addressed “to the people of God.” 
 
“But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence them,” he said.
 
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Child abuse in the Church

We live in a new age of freedom of expression, when the long history of suppression and covering up of the truth is crumbling and social and mainstream media have championed the voice of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. The controlling power and influence of some leaders in traditional institutions like the Catholic Church to instill fear, bury the realities, deny crimes of child abuse and silence the complainants are being challenged, and their credibility has weakened.