I was scrolling through Facebook and came across something that caught my attention. It involved Pope Francis and something that he has done, but, like with all of his actions, it was something that was quite different.
Pope Francis was begging for forgiveness.?
What was he begging forgiveness for, you ask?
He was begging forgiveness on behalf of the Church from sex abuse victims- the ones that were victimized by priests in the church.
From the New York Times-
” Pope Francis on Monday used his first meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse to offer his strongest condemnation of a crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church, comparing priests who abuse minors to ?a sacrilegious cult,? while begging forgiveness from victims and pledging to crack down on bishops who fail to protect children.”
The six victims were from three different countries and Pope Francis met with them in an effort to demonstrate resolve and personal empathy with an issue that he has faced criticism on even with the wild popularity of his papacy.
He led a Mass and delivered a homily to the victims personally and then held sessions with each victim.
Pope Francis had this to say, during his homily.
?Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you.?And I humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves.?
He went further to say that such abuse will no longer be tolerated or swept under the rug.
At least one victim, Marie Kane, was impressed, but still urged the Pope that the Church had done too little and needed more accountability with these crimes.
Steps Taken So Far.
Pope Francis formed a committee to advise him on the claims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests within the church. On this committee, he had placed a victim of a priest to help with the investigations. Half of the members are also women, and there is even a psychologist, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, and one of the women was victimized by a priest herself at thirteen years old.
This was done in December of 2013.
Pope Francis also gave credit to his predecessor, Pope Benedict for beginning the steps of handling sex abuse charges against priests. In his last two years as Pope, Benedict defrocked nearly 400 abusive priests.
More recently, Pope Francis has also ordered an investigation of Carlos Urrutigoity, a priest in Paraguay that is accused of sexual abuse of a child.
True to his word, Pope Francis is shaking up the Church even further.
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