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19 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 MARCH 2019 Mikiel Galea Vatican summit full of promise THE Maltese Archbishop Charles Sci- cluna was certainly at the centre of the extraordinary summit on the protec- tion of minors at the Vatican, and it is a credit to your small nation that this man has taken such a lead in the fight against priestly sex abuse. For the Catholic Church, this was a long road towards accountability, so this summit has the potential of re- gaining the trust of many Catholics by dealing with the sex scandals that have besieged it. As stated in some remarkable Catho- lic editorials, "it was finally an admis- sion that the dual scandal of sexual abuse of children and minors by priests and the concomitant cover-up of the crimes by members of the hierarchy is a global phenomenon and requires radical rearrangement of Church prior- ities if the behaviour is to be stemmed and children protected." You had the stunning admission by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx that he was certain that documents relat- ing to abuse had been destroyed in Germany. That immediately raises the question of who destroyed them and when, and whether a separate inquiry should be launched to determine if other conferences around the world have destroyed documents. Even more inspiring was the inter- vention of Sr Veronica Openibo from Nigeria, who blasted what she called a culture of "mediocrity, hypocrisy, and complacency" that she said had brought the Church to a "disgraceful and scandalous place". The National Catholic Register compared her ora- tion to Franciscan Sr Thea Bowman's speech to the US bishops in 1989, after she criticised priests who sup- ported accused brethren over victims, expressing serious concerns about current formation practices and even addressing Pope Francis' own record on abuse. At one point she turned over to Pope Francis. Turning directly to the Pontiff as he sat one chair over on the rostrum in the Vatican's Synod Hall at the end of her speech, Openibo called him "Brother Francis" and said she admired him for being "humble enough to change your mind, to apologise and take action" about sexual abuse in Chile: "I read with great interest many articles about the Pope's reactions in the case of the Chilean bishops – from a denial of accusations, to anger because of decep- tion and cover up, to the acceptance of resignations of three of the bishops. I admire you, Brother Francis, for taking time as a true Jesuit, to discern and be humble enough to change your mind, to apologise and take action – an ex- ample for all of us." It was also the first to gather the world's bishops to discuss this crisis with the additional testimony of vic- tims. The big question for us faithful is: will the bishops devise plans for han- dling cases, including charges against themselves? Will the forthcoming pa- pal document lay out specific rules for how bishops are to handle abuse cases? No doubt, Pope Francis inherited a mess from his predecessors, and he is making many unhappy by his sheer will to change clergy culture. But he did send a strong message: no more room for denial placing the blame elsewhere. Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAc- countability.org said she regretted the failure of the meeting to come up with concrete internal reforms, but it turned into a place where connections oc- curred "between journalists and sur- vivors from many countries. This was public education on a massive scale". I do hope that Archbishop Scicluna can take the follow-up summit a fur- ther step up the scale of accountability, that the bishops of the Church will have no choice but to follow a set pro- tocol as laid down by Pope Francis's authority. Frank Di Anno, Astoria, (NY) USA Letters & Clarifications