Polish anti-paedophilia group to send sex abuse report to pope
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
09.10.2018 16:05
An anti-paedophilia group is drawing up a report on sexual abuse in the Polish Catholic Church that it plans to send to Pope Francis.
Photo: Anemone123/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons
The Polish “Don’t Be Afraid” foundation has unveiled a map of what it said were over 300 instances of child abuse. The cases are based on media reports and incidents reported to the group.
The foundation said that over 100 new possible victims contacted it and that its website was visited 780,000 times in just 24 hours after the map was released on Sunday.
The foundation’s Artur Nowak told reporters that the map would be used to draw up a report on paedophilia in the Catholic Church in Poland.
According to the foundation, the report will reveal the names of priests involved in covering up instances of child abuse, and will be sent directly to Pope Francis.
Zbigniew Nosowski, head of the Catholic magazine Więź, said: “Most Church authorities and ordinary people are still deluded that this is not a real problem in Poland.”
He added that “a lot of Polish bishops are still denying, or just beginning to see the problem.”
In recent months the Roman Catholic Church worldwide has faced a number of crises involving paedophilia -- in Chile, the United States, Australia, Ireland and other countries.
(tf/pk)