VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Monday unambiguously said Church officials who covered up sexual abuse “are guilty” of wrongdoing, as he returned home after a triumphant trip to the United States where he held emotional talks with child abuse survivors.
In one of his strongest comments to date on a scandal that has dogged the Church for decades, Francis said abuse by priests was “nearly a sacrilege” and “those who have hidden (such acts) are guilty — including some bishops.”
“Sexual abuse is everywhere,” the pontiff told reporters on his flight back to Rome. “But when a priest carries out abuse, it’s very serious because his calling is to help a child grow... toward the love of God,” he said.
The remarks capped an outspoken press conference aboard the papal plane, during which the famously modest pontiff also downplayed the notion of being a “star” after electrifying adoring crowds in the United States and Cuba with his message of humility and reconciliation.
Francis said his job was to be “the servant of the servants of God... It’s a bit different from a star!“
Throughout the nine-day trip, huge crowds lined the streets everywhere the 78-year-old went in Cuba, Washington, New York and Philadelphia.
Francis became the first pope to address the US Congress, calling on elected leaders to take responsibility for crafting a fairer economic system, confronting global warming, restricting the arms trade and abolishing the death penalty.
In New York, he led a multi-faith prayer for world peace at Ground Zero, testament to the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a place that he said “speaks so powerfully of the mystery of evil.”
In Philadelphia, the Vatican said more than one million people poured into the streets for his farewell mass — more than double the number who turned out for a service led by John Paul II in 1979.
The rare criticism that Francis did elicit was the omission — from his public agenda at least — of a meeting with victims of paedophile priests, but on Sunday he met privately with five adults who were abused as children.
“God weeps,” the pope told a gathering of bishops afterwards, pledging to hold those responsible accountable.
“I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm. I am profoundly sorry.”
He told reporters Monday he had spoken “openly” with the abuse survivors, and that he did not judge those who could not find it in their hearts to forgive their perpetrators.
Around 6,400 Catholic clergy have been accused of abusing minors in the United States between 1950 and 1980, although campaigners fear the number could be higher.
Activists welcomed what they called a long-awaited admission by Francis that the Church had covered up abuse but said only actions, not words, would make a difference.
“After 30 years of public scandal in the US over predator priests and complicit bishops, finally a Catholic official is admitting that ‘princes of the Church’ covered up heinous crimes,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests.
“Francis must publicly and promptly punish bishops who are protecting predators now. And he must order bishops to do the same with their own staff and clerics who are protecting predators now.”
Francis’s relatively reform-minded approach to social issues — a refusal to judge gays and lesbians including priests — and his love for the most vulnerable have struck a chord across the US racial and socioeconomic divide.
But he said Monday that divorce would remain off-limits for Catholics, ahead of a synod on the family starting Sunday and following a reform that streamlined the process for couples to obtain annulments.
An annulment “is not a divorce, because marriage is indissoluble when it is a sacrament — and the Church cannot change that: this is doctrine.”
The pope attracted non-Catholics, Christians of other denominations and followers of other faiths at all his US stops.
But it was when meeting the disadvantaged — immigrant schoolchildren in New York, the homeless in Washington and prisoners in Philadelphia — that the Argentinian pontiff seemed most animated.
Manuel Portillo, 54, a Guatemalan immigrant who has lived in Philadelphia for 22 years, said he had never seen such enthusiasm in the city.
“I followed every step of the pope’s visit, and I think he made fantastic remarks on Cuba and immigration,” he said.
Pope says those who hid sex abuse by priests ‘are guilty’
Pope says those who hid sex abuse by priests ‘are guilty’
Youth voters take center stage in Bangladesh election after student-led regime change
- About 45% of Bangladeshis eligible to vote in Thursday’s election are aged 18-33
- Election follows 18 months of reforms after the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule
DHAKA: When he goes to the polls on Thursday, Atikur Rahman Toha will vote for the first time, believing that this election can bring democratic change to Bangladesh.
A philosophy student at Dhaka University, Toha was already eligible to vote in the 2024 poll but, like many others, he opted out.
“I didn’t feel motivated to even go to vote,” he said. “That was a truly one-sided election. The election system was fully corrupted. That’s why I felt demotivated. But this time I am truly excited to exercise my voting rights for the first time.”
The January 2024 vote was widely criticized by both domestic and international observers and marred by a crackdown on the opposition and allegations of voter fraud.
But the victory of the Awami League of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was short-lived, as a few months later the government was ousted by a student-led uprising, which ended the 15-year rule of Bangladesh’s longest-serving leader.
The interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took control in August 2024 and prepared a series of reforms to restructure the country’s political and institutional framework and organize the upcoming vote.
About 127.7 million Bangladeshis are eligible to cast their ballots, according to Election Commission data, with nearly a third of them, or 40.4 million, aged 18-29. Another 16.9 million are 30-33, making it a youth–dominated poll, with the voters hopeful the outcome will help continue the momentum of the 2024 student-led uprising.
“We haven’t yet fully transitioned into a democratic process. And there is no fully stable situation in the country,” Toha said. “After the election we truly hope that the situation will change.”
For Rawnak Jahan Rakamoni, also a Dhaka University student, who is graduating in information science, voting this time meant that her voice would count.
“We are feeling that we are heard, we will be heard, our opinion will matter,” she said.
“I think it is a very important moment for our country, because after many years of controversial elections, people are finally getting a chance to exercise their voting rights and people are hoping that this election will be more meaningful and credible. This should be a fair election.”
But despite the much wider representation than before, the upcoming vote will not be entirely inclusive in the absence of the Awami League, which still retains a significant foothold.
The Election Commission last year barred Hasina’s party from contesting the next national elections, after the government banned Awami League’s activities citing national security threats and a war crimes investigation against the party’s top leadership.
The UN Human Rights Office has estimated that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024 the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”
It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, with the majority shot dead from military rifles.
Rezwan Ahmed Rifat, a law student, wanted the new government to “ensure justice for the victims of the July (uprising), enforced disappearances, and other forms of torture” carried out by the previous regime.
The two main parties out of the 51 contesting Thursday’s vote are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat, which in 2013 was banned from political participation by Hasina’s government, heads an 11-party alliance, including the National Citizen Party formed by student leaders from the 2024 movement.
“I see this election as a turning point of our country’s democratic journey … It’s not just a normal election,” said Falguni Ahmed, a psychology student who will head to the polls convinced that no matter who wins, it will result in the “democratic accountability” of the next government.
Ahmed added: “People are not voting only for their leaders; they are also voting for the restoration of democratic credibility. That’s why this election is very different.”
