On the plane which brought him back from Bahrain, where he had come to promote interreligious dialogue, François was questioned about the lack of transparency surrounding the rules of sexual abuse affairs committed by religious.
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For his first trip to the small kingdom of Bahrain, nestled in the Arabian Peninsula, the Pope multiplied the meetings. Above all, with King Hamad Ben Issa Al Khalifa, whom he saw twice for private interviews whose content has not been revealed. But also with religious authorities. Muslim, first, as part of his interreligious dialogue, especially with the Imam Al-Tayeb of the Al-Azhar Mosque of Cairo, thanks to which François hopes to show the possibility of a life of “peace” between peoples. The official reason for the trip was also the address pronounced, Friday, November 4, for the closure of the forum for the dialogue between “the East and the West for human coexistence”, which assisted responsible for many religions.
Christian, then. By going to the Gulf, the sovereign pontiff also came to send a message to some 1.6 million people who recognize themselves from this faith in the different countries of the Arabian Peninsula. On Saturday, François presided over a mass in the Manama stadium attended by 30,000 people, most of them immigrant workers, some of whom came from the neighboring kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
On the occasion of the visit of the Pope of the Sacred Heart School, a Catholic institution of Manama, some members of families of political prisoners demonstrated, signs of protest in hand. But they were dispersed by the police without the sovereign pontiff having the opportunity to see them. The archipelago led by a Sunni monarch is regularly accused of human rights violation by NGOs, especially against opponents from the Shiite community.
“The temptation of compromises”
During the traditional press conference held on the aircraft of returning to Rome on Sunday, the Pope avoided answering questions about hot topics. Among them, that of the possibility of reviewing the rule of secrecy in the sanction procedures of the Church against priests perpetrators of sexual abuse. In France, the subject has been particularly sensitive since the revelations of the measures taken against Michel Santier, former bishop of Créteil. The latter was found guilty of sexual abuse committed on young men in the 1990s without anything coming out.
This silence put the Catholic community in turmoil. Asked about the legitimacy of the secrecy of procedures, the Pope elected by recalling that “the problem of abuse has always existed, everywhere, not only in the Church”. While considering that the Church “advanced” on these questions, he recognized that the thing was not easy within an institution where transparency is far from being the rule. “We work at best,” he defended, “but there are people in the Church who do not see things as well, it is a procedure that we do with courage and we do not have one All, courage. “And to insist on” the temptation of compromises “.
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