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Catholic religious orders apologise for inaction on abuse

Catholic religious orders around the world have apologised for failing to respond when their priests raped children, acknowledging their family-like communities blinded them to sexual abuse and led to misplaced loyalties.

Feb 20, 2019, updated Feb 20, 2019
Pope Francis at the Vatican. Photo: AP/Andrew Medichini

Pope Francis at the Vatican. Photo: AP/Andrew Medichini

The two umbrella organisations representing the world’s religious orders issued a joint statement ahead of Pope Francis’ sex abuse prevention summit, which opens on Thursday. They vowed to implement accountability measures to ensure that cover-ups end and children are safe in the presence of clergy.

With a few exceptions, religious orders have largely flown under the radar in the decades-long scandal, as the focus has been on how diocesan bishops protected their priests and moved them from parish to parish.

Yet congregations such as the Jesuits, Salesians and Christian Brothers have some of the worst records, also moving abusers around.

Many orders specialise in running schools.

The Union of Superiors General represents the leadership of male religious orders, which count around 133,000 priests globally. The female branch, the International Union of Superiors General, represents some 500,000 religious sisters. They will each send around a dozen representatives to the summit.

In the statement, the groups said they were ashamed at how they had failed the most vulnerable and blamed “the strong sense of family” their communities fostered for having blinded them to warning signs.

“It resulted in a misplaced loyalty, errors in judgment, slowness to act, denial and at times, cover-up,” they said.

“We want to see our blind spots. We want to name any abuse of power.”

To that end, the statement also condemned recent revelations of priests and bishops who sexually abused seminarians and nuns – an abuse of power that has largely gone unpunished since the victims are adults.

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While noting the pope’s summit is focused on the protection of minors, the groups pledged to find a response.

– AP

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