Bishop at Vatican abuse summit: 'We have been our own worst enemy'
(dpa)
Vatican City (dpa) - Leaders of the Catholic Church have been their "own worst enemy" as they turned a blind eye to clergy child abuse, a bishop says in a Mass homily at the end of a Vatican summit against paedophilia.
"At times, however, we have seen victims and survivors as the enemy, but we have not loved them, we have not blessed them. In that sense, we have been our own worst enemy," Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Australia says.
He calls for a "Copernican revolution" in the Catholic Church, consisting in "the discovery that those who have been abused do not revolve around the Church but the Church around them."
"We will do all we can to bring justice and healing to survivors of abuse; we will listen to them, believe them and walk with them; we will ensure that those who have abused are never again able to offend; we will call to account those who have concealed abuse," Coleridge says.
He calls for a "Copernican revolution" in the Catholic Church, consisting in "the discovery that those who have been abused do not revolve around the Church but the Church around them."
"We will do all we can to bring justice and healing to survivors of abuse; we will listen to them, believe them and walk with them; we will ensure that those who have abused are never again able to offend; we will call to account those who have concealed abuse," Coleridge says.