“Pope: Inflated hopes for the meeting against abuse”
“the Pope’s summit to stop sexual abuse in the catholic church is approaching – but the result could be a disappointment.”
“I think there are high expectations on the meeting,” says the writer Charlotta Smeds.”
“the Catholic church has been rocked by scandal after scandal in country after country with regard to sexual abuse within the church.”
“In Mexico has at least 152 catholic priests who committed sexual abuse shut down of the last nine years. In summer and autumn, it was revealed that hundreds of priests have committed abuse in several cities in the united states. Nuns have sexually exploited and an investigation last fall showed that thousands of children within the catholic church in Germany suffered. Similar scandals have been uncovered in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and Chile – to name a few.”
“Expectations too high”
“the Press of the church is high and the expectation of tangible change is large before the meeting that pope Francis called for to deal with sexual abuse.”
“Too big, according to the pope himself.”
“– The preparatory work is going well but I must admit that it feels like there is an inflated expectation. We need to bring down expectations, has pope Francis said earlier.”
“At the meeting, which is held between 21 and 24 February in the Vatican called for the first time ever, all the president of the world’s biskopskonferenser, a collection of a country by all catholic bishops, to discuss the issue.”
“– They will not sit down around a table and decide what priests should go and not. Talking about the problem from different angles, and send with the bishops pass guidelines to use once they are back at home, ” says Charlotta Smeds, writer on the catholic news site Vatican news.”
“a Total of 133 bishops to participate. The catholic church in Sweden is part of a nordic bishops ‘ conference with the president, Czeslaw Kozon, from Denmark, who is travelling to Rome to represent Sweden and neighbouring countries.”
“According to Charlotta Smeds, the meeting will touch on three main points; the prevention of sexual harassment, how the church is to act if it occurs, and how the church is to provide support to a person who has been exposed.”
” the Goal is to eradicate it here. It may not go as quickly as one would like but the work against the abuse has begun and it will not turn, ” says Charlotta Smeds.”
“Pope Francis has long promised a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse and has been lauded for being progressive and taking the problems seriously. His critics, however, believe that it is too slow and that the reforms that the priests would not have to live in celibacy must be introduced to overcome the problem – something that the pope has given a clear no.”
“– Pope Francis says a lot. Sometimes he says good things but he does nothing, says Gert Gelotte, a catholic and a freelance journalist.”
“Criticizes the church’s view of women”
“Gert Gelotte believe that the problem of sexual abuse and tystnadskulturen around them stems from gender inequality within the church and a problem of democracy around the way the catholic church is structured. Problems that cannot be solved with a meeting.”
“– of course It is better to meet than not to meet – but there is no indication that this group of older men can agree on any decision. It is big and heavy the ruling in question is the church’s views on women, views on sexuality and democracy, ” says Gert Gelotte.”
“Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with nearly a third of humanity as members.”
“the Roman catholic church is the largest of the three main branches, the orthodox and the protestant church.”
“Almost two billion people, or 17.5 per cent of humanity, were registered as members of the catholic church in 2011 in the world.”
“In Sweden, there were 104 175 registered members in the catholic church 2014, organized in 44 assemblies.”
