Vatican City, Oct 6, 2017 / 04:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, Pope Francis told a group of religious and secular experts from around the world that protecting minors against increasing online threats is a serious new concern, and one in which the Church can be a leading voice given the experience gleaned from past mistakes.
“As all of us know, in recent years the Church has come to acknowledge her own failures in providing for the protection of children,” the Pope said Oct. 6. “Extremely grave facts have come to light, for which we have to accept our responsibility before God, before the victims and before public opinion.”
Because of this, “as a result of these painful experiences and the skills gained in the process of conversion and purification, the Church today feels especially bound to work strenuously and with foresight for the protection of minors and their dignity, not only within her own ranks, but in society as a whole and throughout the world.”
The Church can’t even attempt to “do this alone – for that is clearly not enough,” he said, but she stands ready by “offering her own effective and ready cooperation to all those individuals and groups in society that are committed to the same end.”
In this sense, he said, the Church adheres fully to the goal of putting an end to “the abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children” that was set by the United Nations in the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda.
Pope Francis spoke to participants in the global “Child Dignity in the Digital World” conference being held in Rome Oct. 3-6, who had an audience with him the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
Organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection in collaboration with the UK-based global alliance WePROTECT and the organization “Telefono Azzurro,” the first Italian helpline for children at risk, the conference brings together people from all sectors of society, including social scientists, civic leaders, and religious representatives.
Key points of discussion included updates on the situation, the prevention of abuse, pornography, the responsibility of internet providers and the media, and ethical governance.
In their audience with the Pope, participates presented him with a common declaration outlining several action-points for each area and field to develop moving forward.
In his speech, Pope Francis thanked attendees for gathering to address such “a grave new problem” which, until this week’s conference, had not yet been studied in-depth by experts from various fields.
“The acknowledgment and defense of the dignity of the human person is the origin and basis of every right social and political order,” he said, noting that children “are among those most in need of care and protection.”
This is why the Holy See received the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1959, and participated in the 1990 U.N. convention on the same subject, he said, adding that “the dignity and rights of children must be protected by legal systems as priceless goods for the entire human family.”
While we are living in a world “we could hardly have imagined” only a few years ago, Francis said this world is the fruit of “extraordinary achievements of science and technology” that are in many ways changing “our very way of thinking and of being.”
However, while admirable these rapid advancements also bring a certain concern and apprehension with them, he said, explaining that questions naturally arise as to whether “we are capable of guiding the processes we ourselves have set in motion, whether they might be escaping our grasp, and whether we are doing enough to keep them in check.”
As representatives of various fields in digital communications and organizations, conference participants “with great foresight” have put a spotlight on “what is probably the most crucial challenge for the future of the human family: the protection of young people’s dignity.”
Citing various statistics, the Pope noted that currently more than a quarter of the over 3 billion internet users are minors, meaning there are more than 800 million young people navigating the internet throughout the world. In India alone, he said, more than 500 million people will have access to the internet in the coming years, and that half of them will be minors.
“What do they find on the net? And how are they regarded by those who exercise various kinds of influence over the net?” he asked, stressing that when it comes to protecting them, “we have to keep our eyes open and not hide from an unpleasant truth that we would rather not see.”
“For that matter, surely we have realized sufficiently in recent years that concealing the reality of sexual abuse is a grave error and the source of many other evils,” he said, and urged people to “face reality” in this regard.
On this point, he referred to the “extremely troubling” yet increasingly frequent diffusion of problematic activities for youth, such as the spread of extreme pornography online; “sexting” on social media; online bullying; the “sextortion” of young people on the internet; human trafficking and prostitution, as well as a rise in the commissioning of live viewings of rape and violence against minors in other parts of the world.
He also referred to what has been described as the “dark net,” in which traffickers and pedophiles use secure and anonymous channels to exchange photos and information about minors, as well as for human and drug trafficking.
These are the places “where evil finds ever new, effective and pervasive ways to act and to expand,” the Pope said, explaining that the spread of printed pornography in the past “was a relatively small phenomenon compared to the proliferation of pornography on the net.”
And unfortunately, many people are still bewildered by the fact that these things happen, he said, noting that what makes the internet so distinct “is precisely that it is worldwide.”
“It covers the planet, breaking down every barrier, becoming ever more pervasive, reaching everywhere and to every kind of user, including children, due to mobile devices that are becoming smaller and easier to use,” he said.
As a result, no one in the world today, no single nation or authority, “feels capable of monitoring and adequately controlling the extent and the growth of these phenomena,” since many are themselves linked to other serious problems involving the internet such human and drug trafficking, financial crimes and international terrorism.
From an educational standpoint, the Church is also surprised, he said, because the speed of online growth “has left the older generation on the sidelines, rendering extremely difficult, if not impossible, intergenerational dialogue and a serene transmission of rules and wisdom acquired by years of life and experience.”
However, he told the that despite the ominous and widespread nature of the threats, “we must not let ourselves be overcome by fear,” nor allow ourselves “be paralyzed” by a sense of powerlessness.
Instead, a global network must be formed to “limit and direct technology,” putting it at the service of a true human and integral progress.
In this regard, he cautioned attendees not to “underestimate” the harm done to minors by various forms of online abuse and exploitation. “These problems will surely have a serious and life-long effect on today’s children,” has has been proven many times over by fields such as neurobiology, psychology and psychiatry.
And while these crimes are especially problematic for minors, the Pope said it’s also necessary to recognize the harm done to adults, including addictions, distorted views of love and various other disorders.
“We would be seriously deluding ourselves,” he said, “were we to think that a society where an abnormal consumption of internet sex is rampant among adults could be capable of effectively protecting minors.”
Francis also cautioned against another “mistaken approach” to the problem, which he said would be to think that “automatic technical solutions,” such as filters and algorithms, are enough to deal with the problem.
While such measures are necessary and large tech companies ought to invest in speedy and effective protective software, “there is also an urgent need, as part of the process of technological growth itself, for all those involved to acknowledge and address the ethical concerns that this growth raises, in all its breadth and its various consequences.”
He also emphasized the need to not give into the mistaken “ideological and mythical” belief that the internet is “a realm of unlimited freedom.”
“The net has opened a vast new forum for free expression and the exchange of ideas and information,” yet it has also opened the door to new ways of engaging “in heinous illicit activities,” including the abuse of minors.
“This has nothing to do with the exercise of freedom,” he said. Rather, “it has to do with crimes that need to be fought with intelligence and determination, through a broader cooperation among governments and law enforcement agencies on the global level, even as the net itself is now global.”
Pope Francis closed his speech noting that when he travels abroad, he always meets and looks into the eyes of children, both rich and poor, happy and suffering.
“To see children looking us in the eye is an experience we have all had. It touches our hearts and requires us to examine our consciences,” he said.
“What are we doing to ensure that those children can continue smiling at us, with clear eyes and faces filled with trust and hope? What are we doing to make sure that they are not robbed of this light, to ensure that those eyes will not be not darkened and corrupted by what they will find on the internet, which will soon be so integral and important a part of their daily lives?”
“Let us work together,” he said, “so that we will always have the right, the courage and the joy to be able to look into the eyes of the children of our world.”
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Deftly spoken, Mr. Altieri. Rupnik is every bit the “inveterate creep.”
In fact inveterate creepiness seems to be a resume enhancer in Bergoglio’s Dark Vatican.
Hopefully Jesus will have pity on his little ones who are wandering in confusion like sheep with inveterately creepy shepherds.
Accurate comment, dear ‘brineyman’’. Only let’s not forget their HYPOCRISY.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Joseph Sciambra encountered the unwelcome sign in the Church and so left. What has really changed since 2002? After all, a predator/abuser and a possible predator enabler were placed in charge of cleaning up Dodge City. Serial abusers have little to fear from consequences. The Church does not have a lock on the market of mercy however, but the Zulocks apparently went too far. The Islamic world seems unrestrained in putting the stick about. I wear a Star of David pin — Israel’s Old Testament justice horrifies establishments everywhere and so their cries for mercy. It’s as if a John Patrick Shanley or an equivalent were scripting the Vatican and its secular partners. Prison is one thing; death row confessionals would be something quite other. Jesus wept. He weeps alone.
I have come to the conclusion that high ranking members of the Catholic clergy are intrinsically incapable of a. telling the truth and, b. doing the right thing. In others words, these clergy have seriously disordered consciences; they actually believe the lies they tell and think that the evil they do are virtues.
Thank you, Mr. Altieri for, once again and in blunt language, connecting all the dots in this most recent chapter of stunningly repugnant moral turpitude by the Church’s high prelates and the Papa Pachamama who has coddled and protected them. Let’s be very honest. They are, one and all, “inveterate creeps”. The disturbing question I wish you would address is how a practicing Catholic can possibly be “in communion” with such degenerates and how they can in moral and canonical fact claim that they in fact hold the offices and prelatial dignities that they claimed. Even beyond that, is it possible to comprehend that each and all of them have spent years, decades, and even clerical lifetimes offering daily blasphemous and sacrilegious Masses?
“The answer appears to be . . . .”
Does, doesn’t it?
Thank you for this. Another pathetic PR stunt by a pontificate that answers to and uses sexually sick, powerful men. As if God is fooled…Our colossal Church crisis is at root a faith crisis.
Perhaps AI can help us connect the dots to further expose how these episcopal wolves appoint and cover for each other. And we can all be more attuned to the voices of victims.
There is Hell to pay…
Speaking of a faith crisis, why should Pope Francis seek justice for victims of episcopal sexual abuse when he can save the planet from “ecological sins”? Pope Jellyby
“St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ.” Chesterton
In “recent months,” according to the Pontiff Francis and his nunciator for Belgium, “grave new elements have come to light” in the case of the “incestuous-sodomist-predator-EXCELLENCY-EMERITUS” Vanghelgue, 14 years after his sex abuse of his 1st nephew was exposed in the Belgian newspapers, and 13 years after his sex abuse if his 2nd nephew was exposed.
At this very late stage in the story, the “rebuttable presumption” (as they say in the courtroom), is that a bishop sodomizing the boys of his own family is definitely NOT a grave offense in the eyes of the Pontiff Francis and many (perhaps most?) of our bishops.
A case in point to drive home this presumption is to remind ourselves that the (so-called) “Society of Jesus” would not and did not expel Reverend Rupnik for sexually abusing dozens of nuns. They would only expel him for disobeying an order they gave him.
So: demonic sex abuse of boys (and nuns, or anyone), and profaning the sacrament of Holy Orders, and undermining the foundation of respect wholesomely desired and given to faithful and holy priests, and defying the Commandments of Jesus Our King = NOT A GRAVE OFFENSE.
But: insubordination to the same Pontiffs and Bishops (who show their indifference to victims of the sex abuse, their disregard for faithful priests and bishops, and their contempt for the authority of Jesus), any INSUBORDINATION AGAINST THEM is what they hold to be a GRAVE OFFENSE.
This is the sum of what’s at stake for these narcissists: their egos, and the deference “owed to them” by “underlings,” are on the line.
Their concerns are the same as the senior management in the Belgian authorities and the University of Louvain: deference and decorum must be preserved.
CiM: A home run….no, a Grand Slam!
Or, ‘The first duty of the bureaucrat is to preserve the bureaucracy.’
How does McElroy become a cardinal with his disgraceful handling of Rachel Mastrogiacomo? Big Mac pays his promoter back by carrying the papal water and making a mess. McElroy, Vangheluwe, Daneels, Rupnik. Birds of a feather seem to a protected species in the Vatican.
Does “creepyness” come in degrees? Are we all also tainted with it? Is it possible for us to discern where we stand in relation to others in our relative culpability for our own “creepyness” I have observed that throwers of stones usually live in glass houses. How strange. Oh what fools we mortals be! 🫣 Cheer up for God loves us not for what we are, but for what we could be. Yes, the Church MUST Judge, but even the judge’s feet are planted in clay.
Dear James Connor, isn’t that the same excuse the Nazi collaborators relied on?
This comment will probably not pass muster, but – in many of these abuse cases, I’ve often asked myself this – wouldn’t a well-aimed kick have been of some benefit? Followed by #2 if necessary.
Methinks that such would have been more than appropriate in ‘the case of the creepy cardinal’.
The 1st task for Pope The Next will be to begin restoring the faith of the faithful in those who are supposed to be “watching” over the flock.
Can’t those who have been abused by clergy just make it public and perhaps such victims can join together in a class action suit and maybe the Catholic legal group led by Tom Fitton offer them free legal services. It’s worth a try. Also choose men of high standards mentally, emotionally and spiritually to form seminary students. And let all those teachers be closely monitored.
Florence: Yours is a great idea but here’s another: How about the men of the town just form a posse? That should have been done just after the 1st 12 year old boy was sodomized by a cleric.
Kind of a strong suggestion from a deacon, I would think.
If you would only wear a cowboy hat, your perspective would change.
The current rot in the Church calls for a spirited response.
A darn good suggestion, “I would think,” James Connor.
Basically, what DEBP is suggesting is that when a system runs amok it generally requires a feedback loop to stabilise it.
So let’s get conversing about how we loyal-to-Christ Catholics can provide regular and persevering corrective feedback to manage the scandalously unChristian, unCatholic clergy misfeasances and malfeasances. Maybe that should be the first item on the agendas of all our current Church synods . . .
Reportage of clerical sexual abuse has to my knowledge never included the element of sacrilege the Rupnik case has — The criminal behavior of this perverted wannabe is crowned by his abuse of the elements of the Holy Eucharist in his concupiscent activity. Every tile of his mosaics should be ground to dust.
Get the jackhammers.
Yes, there have been elements of sacrilege in other cases. Although I doubt anyone has toted up a global score, I recall hearing of instances of perversion practiced on the parish altar. And the two cases of which I have personal knowledge happened in the context of catechism class for little girls.
Granted, it would be expensive to remove and replace Rupik’s hideous “art,” surely it could at least be plastered or painted over? The distinction between sinful artist and his art only fits when the art itself is beautiful. This stuff ain’t, regardless of its appeal to Those in High Places.
The laity in the pews have become numb to all this sexual abuse of minors. They do not trust the hierarchy any more. The damage has been done and will take decades to repair.
Will: God’s memory last much longer than man’s.
Armageddon, Rev 16, is a battle between Yahweh and all who who reject his sovereignty.
Yahweh wins.
All. No matter what church or religion they claim.
Going back to the Garden, we find that obedience to the rule of the sovereign is acceptance of his rulership. (“If you eat from it you will die.”)
Elsewhere, in case we missed the point, “The wages of sin is death.”
The answer to all our problems is God’s Kingdom. Per Ps 37:29, is that a good deal? If so, you should investigate your standing before it. Just to make sure, right?
There will be many surprised, as noted at Mt 7:21 ff. One surprise not mentioned there will be for those who have never considered this question or its answer: How many arks did Noah build?
All this is clarifying background to my brief answer to your comment in re “decades”.
Brief answer: Please read Mt 24:14; we don’t have decades. That should make us happy, if we’re sure we’re on God’s side.
Otherwise …
Mt 18:15-17.
From the Son of God.
Four steps; three verses.
Even for the most serious sins, notice the first goal: gain your brother.
Second goal, fair play: ‘two or three witnesses’; first-hand knowledge understood.
And, at each step, repentance and positive change also understood, to go for the next step.
Third goal, keep the congregation, and Yahweh’s name, clean. “hallowed be thy name”, isn’t it?
By now this malefactor is likely the subject of very public knowledge. So the last goal is to disassociate him and the congregation from each other.
In the time and place when our Lord spoke these words, they could mean only excommunication, (disfellowshipping in some venues).
None of these steps should take anything like 14 years.
I read recently that some Catholic site had decided to continue installing Rupnik mosaics at its site. I don’t remember where. But I am appalled. A bare wall with his mosaics ripped out and ground into dust would be most fitting. I simply couldn’t go to a place where his work is on the walls, and I certainly couldn’t worship there.
And it says everything that it took a national government in a country the Pope wants to visit to force the Vatican to do something about Vangheluwe’s status. He’ll is very real and very real people go there. Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Please pray for the world and the country.
At this erra in church history, it is hard not to conclude that we are being shepherded by a large number of hired hands, who surrender some sheep to the wolves to ensure their own comfort, safety, status, or agenda.
One must not forget that Danneels was a member of the Saint Gallen mafia and that he boasted he was among those who lobbyied for the election of Jorge Bergoglio during the last conclave in stark contravening against the “Universis Dominici Gregis” instructions issued by the last pope JP II, punished by an “ipso facto” excommunication.
Too little, too late. This Pontificate’s credibility on the sexual abuse issue has been irrevocably destroyed due to Rupnik, Znachetta, and McCarrick. No reform will come as long as Francis remains Pope, which will hopefully not be long.
So many of you, in reply to OPs like this one, remain in your Catholic Church afterwards, it’s apparent.
Why?
Some sources estimate there are over 20,000 religions/churches in the world. Why not look around? Some will reply, ‘But the RCC was founded by Christ and is therefore the only true faith. My response is, ‘If he can’t protect it (and you) any better than he has, then your faith may be seriously misplaced.’
How sad.
Dear Doug, read The New Testament [esp. 1 Peter 1:6 & 7]
There’ve been bad apples in The Church from its start, nearly 2,000 years ago.
Only pagans demand: “What can GOD do for me!”
Catholics & other true Christians ask: “What can I do for God and for others.”
We “remain in your Catholic Church” because we experience the love of God in all things, & greatly desire to have its fullness, face-to-face eternally.
Give it a try, dear Doug. ‘Tis not to be missed.
Ever in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
My response is, ‘If [Christ] can’t protect it (and you) any better than he has, then your faith may be seriously misplaced.’
How sad.
A highly illustrative case of total misunderstanding, dear Doug!
Jesus Christ, THE LORD, is fully protecting His own, who persevere in this world, unto an eternity of bliss (life that is really Life), where the hurtful things of this earthly life will not even be a bad dream.
“Son, remember that in this life you received good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is being comforted in Heaven, while you are in agony.” see Luke 16:25.
Dear Doug, never forget: “He who laughs last, laughs best!”