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African nun scolds bishops on abuse: 'This storm will not pass'

[February 23, 2019] By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - An African nun told Catholic bishops on Saturday to acknowledge the church's hypocrisy in its handling of the sexual abuse crisis, and a cardinal admitted case files had been destroyed.

Sister Veronica Openibo, a Nigerian who has worked in Africa, Europe and the United States, spoke with a soft voice but had a strong message for the prelates sitting before her, telling them: "This storm will not pass".

She delivered her talk at the start of the penultimate day of a Vatican summit of some 200 senior Church officials convened by Pope Francis to confront what he has called the scourge of sexual abuse by the clergy.

"We proclaim the Ten Commandments and parade ourselves as being the custodians of moral standards and values and good behavior in society. Hypocrites at times? Yes! Why did we keep silent for so long?" she said.

She told the pope, sitting near her on the dais, that she admired him because he was "humble enough to change your mind," apologize and take action after he initially defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse. The bishop later resigned.

"How could the clerical Church have kept silent, covering these atrocities? The silence, the carrying of the secrets in the hearts of the perpetrators, the length of the abuses and the constant transfers of perpetrators are unimaginable," she said.

She spoke of her shock when she watched the 2015 Oscar-winning film Spotlight, which uncovered how Church leaders in Boston moved predator priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them or turning them over to civil authorities.

"At the present time, we are in a state of crisis and shame. We have seriously clouded the grace of the Christ-mission," Openibo said.

"We must acknowledge that our mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency have brought us to this disgraceful and scandalous place we find ourselves as a Church. We pause to pray, Lord have mercy on us!" she said.

DESTROYED FILES

She said Church leaders must shed their habit of hiding events for fear of making a mistake.

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Pope Francis attends the four-day meeting on the global sexual abuse crisis, at the Vatican February 23, 2019. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS

"Too often we want to keep silent until the storm has passed. This storm will not pass by. Our credibility is at stake," she said, adding that the Church's male hierarchy should allow more women to be involved in fight against abuse.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx called for more "traceability and transparency" in dealing with the issue, such as limiting pontifical secrecy in cases of abuse handled by the Vatican, releasing more statistics and publishing judicial procedures.

"Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created. Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on them," Marx, a leading progressive, said.

"The rights of victims were effectively trampled underfoot, and left to the whims of individuals," he said.

The abuse crisis has made 2018 one of the toughest years for the pope since his election in 2013.

Chile's 34 bishops offered to resign over the scandal, the pope's trip to Ireland exposed decades of abuse in the once staunchly Catholic nation and a grand jury in Pennsylvania revealed priests sexually abused about 1,000 people over seven decades in that U.S. state alone.

Victims, some of whom told painful stories of abuse and cover-up when the conference began on Thursday, rallied in a Rome square before a march to the Vatican to demand change and justice.

The conference ends on Sunday when the pope will make a final speech. The Vatican says it will formulate follow-up measures to make sure all bishop return home knowing how to put anti-abuse procedures into place.

(Reporting By Philip PullellaEditing by Edmund Blair)

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