World News
Conference participants look at relation between power, abuse in church
Published: September 6, 2012
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The "most tragic wound" of clerical sexual abuse will not heal without a response from the entire Catholic Church -- hierarchy and laity together -- said the chief Vatican investigator of abuse cases. "I think that slowly, slowly, slowly we are getting toward a response that is truly ecclesial -- it's not hierarchical, it's the church. We are in this together, in suffering (from) the wound and trying to respond to it," Msgr. Charles Scicluna told Vatican Radio. The monsignor, whose formal title is promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke to Vatican Radio during a Sept. 4-5 conference in England titled "Redeeming Power: Overcoming Abuse in Church and Society." The European Society of Catholic Theology sponsored the conference at St. Mary's University College in Twickenham as part of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology's three-year research project on "the power of theology to overcome power abuse in church and society." Msgr. Scicluna told Vatican Radio the conference was an important part of the ongoing conversation about how to empower all members of the church to prevent abuse and promote accountability. "We are accountable not only to God, but to each other and to our peers in how we respond to difficult questions, including sin and crime," he said
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