‘HEAR THE CRY OF THE LITTLE ONES’

Victims dismiss Vatican’s plan on sex abuse

VATICAN CITY• Pope Francis put forward a 21- point plan Thursday for combating the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, but the proposals were dismissed by victims as wholly inadequate and a recycling of procedures that already exist.

The list of “reflection points” was put forward by the Pope on the first day of a summit that was convened in response to sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church around the world.

“The holy people of God looks to us, and expects from us not simple and predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures to be undertaken,” the Pope said as the conference, the first of its kind, got under way at the Vatican. “Hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice.”

“May the Virgin Mary enlighten us as we seek to heal the grave wounds that the scandal of pedophilia has caused” in both children and believers, Pope Francis said.

He said the assembled Catholic leaders were obliged to discuss, frankly and in depth, “how to confront this evil afflicting the Church and humanity.”

The pontiff ’s brief address kicked off one of the most critical points of his papacy, a gathering of the world’s leading bishops to discuss a problem that the Catholic Church has struggled for decades to curb — and that has now damaged the Pope’s own reputation.

Church officials have called the four-day meeting one phase in a long process, not a cure-all. But the Pope and the Vatican face intense pressure to push bishops from around the world to take the issue seriously, even in regions where abuse scandals have not yet surfaced publicly.