Addressing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors March 16, Pope Leo XIV underlined the importance of preventing abuse in the Church, insisting that such responsibility must be concretely confronted and not delegated.
“Your mission is to help ensure that abuse is prevented. Yet prevention is never just a set of protocols or procedures,” he said. “It is about helping to form, throughout the church, a culture of care, in which the protection of minors and persons in vulnerable situations is not seen as an obligation imposed from outside, but as a natural expression of faith.”
In a speech at the Vatican March 16, Leo expressed his gratitude to the pontifical commission for its efforts to protect children, adolescents and persons in vulnerable situations.
“It is a demanding service, sometimes silent, often burdensome, but one which is essential for the life of the church and for the building of an authentic culture of care,” Leo said.
Pope Francis placed the commission permanently within the Roman Curia “to remind the whole Church that the prevention of abuse is not an optional task, but a constitutive dimension of the mission of the Church,” the pope recalled.
To continue reading this article, click here.
With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Deborah Castellano Lubov, where this article originally appeared.
