Vatican Summit

VATICAN CITY — Speaking to a global gathering of bishops on the second day of an unprecedented Vatican meeting on sexual abuse, a cardinal from India — a close adviser to Pope Francis — described his own searing experiences meeting victims. He said those abuse victims often felt helpless and bitter. He said they “could not relate normally with others.” He said they were “distracted” and closed off. Sometimes, their psyches seemed “destroyed.”

“It shocked me,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Mumbai.

“The sexual abuse of minors and other vulnerable people not only breaks divine and ecclesiastical law, it is also public criminal behavior,” Gracias said. He said the problem of abuse was “universal,” not just relegated to some parts of the world.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cardinal-describes-universal-problem-on-second-day-of-vaticans-abuse-summit/2019/02/22/f9357596-361c-11e9-8375-e3dcf6b68558_story.html