Bishop vows to expose abuse

By JIMMY KALEBE
Lae Catholic Diocese Bishop Rozario Menezes, pictured, says child abuse of any form has no place in the church.
He said that if any clergymen, laymen or any person attached to the church is found to have engaged in such activity, they will be reported to police and let the law take its course.
“The church will not hide anything,” Bishop Menezes said.
“If our priest, deacons, pastoral workers or anybody attached to this church is found to have done something wrong in this regard, I will report the matter.”
He told The National in the past, some bishops did not report such matters as they were afraid to tarnish the good name of the church but with the new Pope strongly condemning such actions, they would make sure anything that was wrong was reported.
“This is the church of God and He wants us to be true and transparent and I will do as what is right under Him and the law of the land and this is my stand,” he said.
He said there was problem and we were human beings and people made mistakes but again the church was moving towards exposing such behaviours and would not tolerate it anymore.
Bishop Menezes said the Diocese of Lae now had child protection officers who would be out in the near future to train people in rural areas to report any child abuse of all forms.
“In many rural villages, we do not know what is happening there,” he said.
“We need to get these trainers out there and inform those in the community of what to do when faced with such incidents to try to minimise it at the community level”.
He said we can preach the Gospel everywhere but what is the meaning of it when we hide behind this and do something that God sees as wrong.
He added that with the launching of the new Catholic Radio 103.7FM, this will enable a lot of information to be pass onto the communities in rural areas regarding law and order, health and education and other community developments.