Pope Francis to meet victims of clerical abuse in Portugal

Pope Francis plans to meet privately with victims of clerical abuse during his visit to the Portuguese capital Lisbon for World Youth Day in August, the local organising committee said Tuesday.

“There will be a meeting with the victims of aggression”, but these details will not be revealed “in order to protect the victims”, said the Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, Americo Aguiar.

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Aguiar is responsible for organising the worldwide meeting of young Catholics, which will take place from August 1-6.

He told a press conference that withholding details of the meetings was a necessary condition of the encounters, stressing the Catholic Church did not wish to make the subject “taboo”.

Meeting Pope Francis

According to a shock report published last February by a commission of independent experts, at the request of the Portuguese Catholic hierarchy, at least 4,815 minors have been victims of sexual violence within the Church since 1950.

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The Portuguese Church, which has already asked victims for forgiveness, has initiated “direct contact with around thirty people” with a view to meeting Pope Francis.

Bishop Aguiar was unable to say whether all of them “want to come and will agree to do so”.

This will be Pope Francis’ 42nd trip abroad since his election in 2013.

Despite his increasingly fragile health and knee pain that forces him to use a wheelchair, Francis, 86, continues to travel.

He is due to visit Mongolia in early September, and Marseille on September 23.

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Pope Francis visited a Rome hospital for a medical check-up on Tuesday, the Vatican said, just over two months after he was hospitalised with bronchitis.

The Vatican added that the Portugal trip would go ahead.