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BREAKING NEWSR. Kelly's bond set at $1 million by Chicago judge in sex abuse
case Read Story
Top cardinal tells Vatican summit that
some sex abuse documents destroyed
Doug Stanglin, USA TODAYPublished 8:38 a.m. ET Feb. 23, 2019 | Updated 10:06 a.m. ET Feb. 23, 2019

Cardinals attending Pope Francis' summit on preventing clergy sex abuse have called for a new culture of
accountability in the Catholic Church to punish bishops and religious superiors who fail to protect their flocks from
predator priests. (Feb. 22) AP

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A top German cardinal said Saturday that documents on past sex abuse cases in the
church had been destroyed or ignored and urged changes to the Vatican’s legal code
of secrecy in such issues to restore trust.

Calling for the publication of statistics on the problem, German Cardinal Reinhard
Marx addressed Pope Francis' four-day sex abuse prevention summit at the Vatican.

He said the church must redefine confidentiality and secrecy in the way it deals
with such cases or risk charges of cover-up.

"Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible
were destroyed, or not even created," he told the group, according to Vatican News.
"Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on
them."
Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, right, talks with Cardinal Reinhard Marx, as they wait for the
arrival of Pope Francis for the third day of a Vatican's conference on dealing with sex abuse by priests, at the
Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. (Photo11: Alessandra Tarantino, AP)
The cardinal blamed "abuse of power in the area of administration” as a major factor
in the sexual abuse of children and young people. “In this regard, administration has
not contributed to fulfilling the mission of the church, but on the contrary, has
obscured, discredited and made it impossible.”

In an effort to keep the burgeoning scandal buried, he said, church files about
abusers had been destroyed, victims silenced and church procedures ignored,
canceled or countermanded.

Pope Francis called the four-day summit that brought together almost 200 high-
ranking church officials, including leaders of bishop conferences from more than 100
nations. The summit has focused on making bishops aware of their responsibilities
regarding sexual abuse, as well as accountability and transparency, the Vatican said.

The pope, in his opening remarks Thursday, cited the "scourge" of sexual abuse and
said it was the responsibility of church leaders to "confront this evil afflicting the
Church and humanity."

Marx called for changes to the Vatican’s legal code of secrecy to not only bring
transparency but to highlight the cases and determine who made decision on how
they were handled, when and why.

The summit has also provided an opportunity for a public airing of the extent of the
problem in the church. A prominent Nigerian nun on Saturday blasted the culture of
 silence that has long kept clergy sexual abuse hidden in the Catholic Church, telling a
Vatican summit that transparency and an admission of mistakes were needed to
restore trust.

The summit began with an African woman who was not identified recounting how her
priest raped her and forced her to have three abortions over a dozen years after he
started violating her at age 15.

It included a warning from Colombian Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez that they could
all face prison if they let such crimes go unpunished.

Last week, Francis defrocked former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 88, after
Vatican officials found him guilty of sex crimes against minors and adults. McCarrick
is the most senior Catholic official to be defrocked for such crimes.

Experts said McCarrick's case sends an important signal that even cardinals and
powerful archbishops will be held accountable.

More than 30 years after the scandal first erupted in Ireland and Australia and 20
years after it hit the U.S., bishops and Catholic officials in many parts of Europe, Latin
America, Africa and Asia still either deny that clergy sex abuse exists in their regions
or downplay the problem.

Contributing: John Bacon; The Associated Press

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