

No amount of money can compensate for the harm suffered when a trusted priest abuses a child. Survivors of sexual assault and sexual abuse are not only severely impacted in the short term but commonly suffer emotional and psychological effects that last a lifetime. It’s a scandal that makes headlines and destroys lives. Survivors who protected their abusers for years spoke out and revealed that trusted priests committed horrific acts. Many people were shocked by the sexual abuse that rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

He also didn't specifically outline whether the church would adopt a zero-tolerance approach to the clergy who commit or cover up abuse.Average Settlement for Clergy Abuse in California The Jesuit pope added that the vast majority of sexual abuse occurs within the family, and in a bid to contextualize what he said was once a taboo subject, offered a global review of the wider problem of sexual tourism and online pornography.īut while he acknowledged the grief of victims and offered a list of measures to combat abuse, Francis offered little in the way of new approaches during the speech. "The church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case," he added at the end of Mass celebrated in the Sala Regia, one of the grand, frescoed reception rooms of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

"She feels called to combat this evil that strikes at the very heart of her mission, which is to preach the Gospel to the little ones and to protect them from ravenous wolves." "The church has now become increasingly aware of the need not only to curb the gravest cases of abuse by disciplinary measures and civil and canonical processes, but also to decisively confront the phenomenon both inside and outside," Francis said.
