VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A group of German victims of abuse on Wednesday called on Pope Francis to step up efforts against “sexual and spiritual abuse” by clergy, after completing a 900-km (559 miles) bicycle trek from Munich to the Vatican.
Abuse scandals have shredded the Catholic Church’s reputation and have been a major challenge for the pope, who has passed a series of measures aimed at holding the Church hierarchy more accountable, with mixed results.
“Men and women in the service of the Church inflicted severe physical, sexual and psychological violence on people entrusted to their care,” the group said in a letter that was handed to Francis during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.
“We expect you to do everything in your power to ensure that in all corners of the universal Church the issue of sexual and spiritual abuse is seen, dealt with, and prevented through appropriate preventive measures,” they added.
The German group, made up of 15 abuse survivors and other supporters, left Munich on May 6 and travelled to Rome with the backing of their local archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a former head of the German bishops’ conference.
The issue of abuse is particularly sensitive in Germany, where investigations have exposed widespread historical church abuse and cover-up, triggering demands for major changes in the church.
The pope must “send a clear signal to perpetrators and bishops who have not fulfilled their responsibilities, and who to some extent continue not to do so today,” the German victims said in the letter.
The German bishops’ conference is debating a series of reforms in reaction to the abuse crisis, including on homosexuality, women priests and priestly celibacy, as part of its so-called Synodal Path.
The Vatican has put a brake on such proposals, which are anathema to conservatives and could lead to massive splintering similar to what happened in Anglican and Protestant Churches after they introduced similar changes in recent decades.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Rachel More, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
