Victims of sexual abuse call on Pope Francis to punish perpetrators
Victims of sexually abusive priests from across the Americas joined forces to urge Pope Francis to allow civilian justice to punish paedophiles and those who covered up their crimes.
From the United States to Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other nations, victims issued a letter made public in Mexico City on Monday telling the Argentine pontiff "words are not enough".
The letter said only civilian trials and Church reform will put an end to the "great holocaust of thousands of boys and girls who were sacrificed to avoid scandal and salvage the image and prestige of the Catholic Church's representatives in the world".
The victims said the pope's recent admonishments of sex abuse among clergy are "ambiguous and contradictory" because they do not lead to any "institutional process toward truth and justice".
The letter was read by Jose Barba, one of the victims of Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ order who died in 2008.
