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Lisbon, Portugal — Pope Francis is in Portugal this week for what’s been known as the “Catholic Woodstock” — the church’s “World Youth Day” pageant. A whole bunch of hundreds of younger individuals are collaborating, and whereas the pageant is a celebration, the pontiff began his go to by confronting the darkish legacy of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal.
Francis wasted no time in addressing the greatest stain on at the moment’s Catholic Church, assembly with intercourse abuse survivors behind closed doorways on the primary day of the summit.
Arriving in Lisbon for the worldwide celebration of religion, the pope shortly addressed the elephant within the room: A report issued earlier this 12 months saying that just about 5,000 minors had been sexually abused by Portuguese clergy for the reason that Nineteen Fifties.
Addressing a gaggle of bishops, Francis blasted them for the “scandals which have marred” the church, and known as for “ongoing purification,” demanding that victims be “accepted and listened to.”
It is a painful matter, and one which a lot of the younger Catholics from all over the world did not come to Portugal to cope with. For the overwhelming majority of the World Youth Day attendees, the summit is a pageant — and Pope Francis is their rockstar.
CBS Information met a gaggle of youngsters from Norwalk, California — members of the St. John of God Parish from the Los Angeles archdiocese. Every of them needed to increase $3,500 to get to World Youth Day.
Some have dad and mom with out authorized residency paperwork within the U.S., and all of them have handled hardships.
George and his dad and mom paid his option to Portugal with tacos and tamales. He advised CBS Information how his household spent many Sundays within the previous months getting up early to be prepared for the post-mass rush at their native church.
“Go to the church and arrange, after which promote each time the mass would end,” he mentioned. “Individuals come out and we might simply promote all of the meals.”
Francis is likely one of the world’s most outspoken champions of migrants. Like George and his buddies, the chief of the Catholic Church can be Latino.
“He realizes that we’re all one individuals,” mentioned George’s good friend Andres. “There is no actual borders in Christ. There’s simply — there’s individuals. There’s love. That is essential, and that is why I like Pope Francis.”
World Youth Day is a snapshot of the Church’s future, “whether or not they’re from Latin nations, from Asian nations, from African nations,” the boys’ parish priest, Father Raymond Decipeda, advised CBS Information. “So, we’re simply blessed that that is the face of the church.”
The jubilation from so many younger Catholics in Portugal this week will probably be welcomed by many, because the church continues grappling with its legacy on youth, and find out how to transfer ahead.
The Holy See mentioned the pontiff met Wednesday night time with 13 abuse survivors for greater than an hour on the Vatican’s embassy in Lisbon.
World Youth Day occasions run by means of Sunday, and as many as 1 million Catholics have been anticipated to participate.
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