Pope Francis voices ‘shame’ at the scale of clergy abuse in France
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first.
The pope spoke during his regular audience at the Vatican about a report released Tuesday that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950.
“There is, unfortunately, a considerable number. I would like to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma that they suffered,’’ Francis said. “It is also my shame, our shame, my shame, for the incapacity of the church for too long to put them at the center of its concerns.”
He called on all bishops and religious superiors to take all actions necessary “so similar dramas are not repeated.”
The pope also expressed his “closeness and paternal support” to French priests in the face of a “difficult test,’’ and called on French Catholics to “ensure that the church remains a safe house for all.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday sent his “thoughts” to the victims. “Behind the figures and terrible situations that are described, there are broken lives,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of a European meeting in Slovenia.
“There is a need for truth and compensation,” Macron said, adding work remains to be done to apply changes the report recommended and better protect children.
The report said an estimated 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other people associated with the Catholic Church sexually abused children, providing France’s first accounting of the global phenomenon. The French church, like in other countries, has had to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up.
NATO expels Russian officers:
NATO on Wednesday expelled eight members of Russia’s mission to the military alliance, saying that they were secretly working as intelligence officers and halved the size of Moscow’s team able to work at its headquarters.
“We can confirm that we have withdrawn the accreditation of eight members of the Russian Mission to NATO, who were undeclared Russian intelligence officers,” a NATO official said. The official was speaking under customary condition of anonymity and can’t be named in public.
NATO also reduced the number of positions that Russia can accredit people for at the organization from 20 down to 10, the official said. No immediate clear explanation was given for the decision, which will take effect at the end of the month.
Relations between NATO and Russia have been increasingly strained since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The two are at odds over Russia’s nuclear missile development, aerial intrusions into NATO airspace and the buzzing of allied ships by fighter planes.
Russia’s virus outbreak:
Russia’s daily coronavirus death toll surpassed 900 Wednesday for the first time in the pandemic, a record that comes amid the country’s low vaccination rate and the government’s reluctance to impose tough restrictions to control new
cases.
Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 929 new deaths Wednesday, the fourth time this month that daily COVID-19 deaths have reached record highs. The previous record, of 895 deaths, was registered Tuesday.
Russia already has Europe’s highest death toll in the pandemic at over 212,000 people, but some official data suggests that is an undercount.
The task force also reported 25,133 new confirmed cases Wednesday.
Despite the surge, government officials rejected the idea of imposing a lockdown and said regional authorities would take steps to stem the spread of the virus.
Sweden pauses Moderna:
Scandinavian authorities Wednesday suspended or discouraged the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in young people because of an increased risk of heart inflammation, a very
rare side effect associated with the shot.
Sweden suspended the use of Moderna for those recipients under 30, Denmark said those under 18 won’t be offered the Swiss-made vaccine, and Norway urged those under 30 to get the Pfizer vaccine instead.
The countries have adequate supplies of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and will be able to continue their vaccination campaigns.
All three countries based their decision on an unpublished study with Sweden’s Public Health Agency saying that it signals “an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium” — the double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the main vessels.
It added: “The risk of being affected is very small.”
UN endorses malaria vaccine: The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world’s
first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it “a historic moment” after a meeting in which two of the U.N. health agency’s expert advisory groups recommended the step.
“Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent, which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease. And we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director.
The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1987. While it’s the first to be authorized, it does face challenges: The vaccine is only about 30% effective, it requires up to four doses, and its protection fades after several months.
Ukraine Holocaust: Ukraine’s Holocaust memorial center Wednesday revealed the names of 159 Nazi SS troops who took part in the killing of Jews during the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine eight decades after one of the most infamous Nazi mass slaughters of World War II.
Nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, when the city was under Nazi occupation in 1941. SS troops carried out the massacre with local collaborators.
“Babi Yar is the biggest mass grave of the Holocaust ... the most quickly filled mass grave,” said Natan Sharansky, chairman of the supervisory board of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial center.
Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Isaac Herzog of Israel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany attended a ceremony in Kyiv to remember the victims of the massacre.