Pope urges sexual predator priests to turn themselves in
- Vatican sources said it was the first time the pope had made such a direct appeal
Pope Francis on Friday urged predator priests who have sexually abused minors to turn themselves in, making one of his strongest comments ever on the crisis sweeping the Catholic Church.
While it was not clear whether Francis was saying such priests should surrender to the Church judicial system, civil justice, or both, Vatican sources said it was the first time the pope had made such a direct appeal.
“To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,” Francis said in his Christmas address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration.
He spoke two months before a summit on the sexual abuse crisis that will be attended by the heads of some 110 national Catholic bishops’ conferences and dozens of experts and leaders of religious orders in the Vatican.
Francis has previously used the Christmas address to denounce cases of corruption and mismanagement in the Curia. This time, he concentrated on the global sexual abuse crisis.
“Let it be clear that, faced with these abominations, the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whoever has committed such crimes. The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case,” he said.