VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has vowed to end clerical sexual abuse, but bishops from Asia and Africa have shown a mixed response to a scandal some have termed a “Western problem”.

Church leaders from around the world attended the closing mass on Sunday of a month-long meeting, or synod, which many had hoped would take the global struggle against paedophile priests up a notch.

As the talks began, Pope Francis warned again that abuse and cover ups would not be tolerated.

But as US Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich told the press, priestly sexual abuse was “not on the front burner of all countries”.

“The resistance of some bishops” to discuss a crisis which has hit countries from Germany to America and Chile limited talk time at the synod, US Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput told the Catholic News Service agency.

“Some say that (sex abuse) really is an issue of the Western world,” he said, adding that he wished that “we had spent more time not only talking about (the crisis), but apologizing to people for it”.

Eamon Martin, the President of the Irish Episcopal Conference, said some churches were “in denial” and had not given the anti-paedophilia campaign “its proper place”.

He said hopes now lay in an exceptional meeting convened in late February by the pope at which the heads of bishop conferences from around the world are to discuss the protection of minors.

Martin said he prayed the meeting “will help to ensure that more countries will take this issue seriously”.

The Vatican has already warned that in some countries the church is dragging its feet because of cultural difference over what constitutes child abuse.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2018

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