According to the AP agency, Pope Leon IV met in the Basilica of St. Piotr with about 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 countries who took part in the special celebrations of the Holy Year for the Clergy. He presented them with his vision of the work of the Church Hierarchs and what they are primarily about to focus on. He said, among others, that they should stay in celibacy, as well as live in poverty and simplicity, from a distance “from pursuit of wealth and from the forms of favoring based on money or power.”
Leon IV: Bishops must be firm and determined
Pope Leon IV also raised the subject of sexual abuse in the Church's circles to the bishops. He pointed out that the clergy “must be firm and determined in dealing with situations that may cause scandal and from any case of abuse, especially with the participation of minors, and to fully respect the current legislation.”
These are not the Pope's first words on this subject recently. As AP reminds, last Friday in the evening, Leon IV sent a written statement to a Peruvian journalist who documented gross abuse in the Catholic movement. He wrote in it that there should be no tolerance in the church for any kind of abuse. He called to fight them and create a “prevention culture”.
