Pope Francis reportedly promised new compensation to victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Church, but none of them saw it. Without news from the sovereign pontiff, they sent a bailiff to his representative in Belgium.
No less than 89 victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, united within the non-profit association Mensenrechten in de Kerk, sent a bailiff to the representative of Pope Francis in Belgium, Apostolic Nuncio Franco Coppola. The sovereign pontiff had undertaken, during his visit to Belgium in September, to pay them higher compensation, but this commitment has not been honored to date, report the titles of DPG Media.
“During his visit to our country, the Pope spoke for two hours with fifteen selected Belgian victims,” explains Walter Van Steenbrugge, one of the non-profit association’s lawyers. “Four of them reported that the Pope apologized to them several times. In addition, he would have promised them to new compensation. The Pope would have judged that the 2,500 to 25,000 euros decreed to date by the arbitration center are too low, given the immense suffering and damage. »
-On October 7, ten days after this meeting, the non-profit organization sent a first letter to “ officially put the Pope on notice to pay compensation as quickly as possible. Without reaction from the apostolic nuncio, the law office sent the same letter of formal notice with a translation into Italian, on November 27. Still without response, this formal notice was, this time, served on the nuncio by a bailiff.
Belgium
Related News :