Church abhors abuse

By Glenda Awikiak
THE Catholic Bishops Conference will deal severely with any cases of priests abusing children, and has set up an office to deal with such matters.
Conference general secretary Father Giorgio Licini told The National several such cases had been “talked about and speculated” but “proper protocols of reporting and dealing with these cases” should first be in place.
“It is really and highly a criminal offence and will treat all cases accordingly and have the perpetrator face the full force of the law,” he said.
His comment comes in the wake of the global outrage over the hundreds of cases of children abused by Catholic priests reported in many countries ,in particular the United States.
There are around 2.35 million Catholics in PNG, the largest of any Christian denomination.
Fr Giorgio urged the people who come across, or know of, any such abuse of children by priests to report it to the church.
“If you know of a case, don’t keep to yourself. Report it to our office,” he said.
“Currently we have set an office to deal with such cases of priest sexually abusing children and teenagers – both males and females.”
Fr Giorgio also called for more awareness on the issue.
“There is a lack of awareness and we have to improve on giving awareness to people on how to react and act properly to deal with those sorts of cases and situations because these are very sensitive,” he said.
“This is not only happening in the churches and by the priest. This problem is occurring everywhere – in families, homes, work places, offices and between close relatives.
He said the Catholic Church was being “put on spotlight”.
“But this is an instrument for us as the church to fix ourselves so we can help fix the families and communities in the same situation, and make out country a better place to live in,” he said.
Pope Francis, the head of the church in the world, had expressed his sorrow on the sexual abuse of minors committed by priests, and asked for forgiveness.
“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children.”
He said the church was aware of the damage, and would continue to tackle the problem.
“We will not step back with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children.”