Clerical abuse perpetrators are “monstrous” and “sick” and must be turned over to the secular courts with all that that involves, in order to protect society from them, Pope Francis has told Swiss victims.
Francis received the founder of the Swiss “Reparation Initiative”, Guido Fluri, and two clerical abuse victims on 3 March in a private audience. The President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who is Swiss and who arranged the audience, was present. Francis apologised to the two victims and all the Swiss victims they represented.
Francis had asked for forgiveness “from the bottom of his heart”, Fluri told the Swiss Catholic press agency kath.ch afterwards.
The Swiss victims he represented expected concrete measures after the Vatican summit, Fluri said. “They want answers (and want to know) What happens now?”, he had asked the Pope and Francis had replied that all cases of abuse should be reported to the secular courts in order to protect society from the perpetrators who were “monstrous” and “sick”. “Up to now, I have not heard the Pope speak out quite so clearly [regarding the perpetrators]”, Fluri told kath.ch. In the 40-minute audience, Francis discussed the Church and society with the victims. The Church had the responsibility of handing the perpetrators over to the secular judiciary, he had underlined.
He (Fluri) was convinced that these were not just empty words. “I really felt that everything he [Francis] said was most convincing,” he said, and added, “Francis has no other choice.”
Cardinal Koch confirmed that the Pope’s words on handing perpetrators over to the secular authorities had been very clear. If a priest or a nun committed abuse, that was not only a religious but also a human crime, the Pope had pointed out, and that was why society had to be protected against such perpetrators and the perpetrators reported to the secular authorities. For Francis the victims were not mere numbers, an experience that many victims in church homes had frequently felt, but human beings with a history of suffering, Koch explained. Francis was fully aware that it was impossible to make good for what they had been through but “that makes his apology the more important and I had the definite impression that the Pope’s apology was most important for the victims”, Koch said.
Koch also emphasised that what had been said and worked out at the recent Vatican “anti-abuse” (Koch’s description) summit must now be put into practice. “Rome must now provide clear stipulations and these must be put into practice by the local Church in the different countries”.
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