VATICAN CITY: A
Catholic nun told bishops yesterday 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.
"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," Marx said. "The thoughts of some abuse
victims can be summarized as follows: If the Church claims to act in the name
of Jesus, yet I am treated so badly by the Church or its administration, then I
would also like to have nothing to do with this Jesus," 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 US 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. - Reuters