Justifying the “lack of courage to represent the Bishop of Beja”, after the words of D.João Marcos last day 7 March, about sexual abuse in the church, The coordinator of the Higher Education Pastoral team of the Diocese of Beja resigned (PES-BEJA) and also a representative at the National Service for the Pastoral of Higher Education.
On the PES-BEJA page, a statement by Sameiro Pedro was published, assistant professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja, who also ceased functions in the team appointed to prepare and accompany the diocesan phase of the Synod of Bishops 2021-2024, where he begins by justifying his departure with a laconic sentence: “I am a Catholic Christian and a catechist with adults”.
The resigning woman adds that “I cannot identify with any exercise of clerical power in a church, above all in dissonance with the Magisterium of the Holy Father”, justifying that not the events verified in the church during the current month “and even more the deliberate omissions, in which they participated in ecclesiastical power in Portugal, They have made me very sad and indignant.”, finished.
In a clear allusion to the words of the Bishop of Beja who argued that abusive priests should be forgiven, Sameiro Pedro who had been nominated for those functions by D.João Marcos, for a period of 3 years 4 October 2021, didn't skimp on words: “my Catholic conscience does not allow me to continue to represent him. There is no place for silence and passivity.”, adding that it will continue to walk in the church, but “always in communion with Pope Francis”, concluded.
Last Wednesday the Diocese of Beja issued a statement in which it assumed the existence of nine cases of abuse, justifying that on the day 3 March, received a list from the Independent Commission for the Study of Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, “where this signaled the existence of five cases, four priests and one layman. Those now denounced have already died.”, adding that the cases they involve will have occurred between 1963 and 1980.
In the statement it is also mentioned that the files of the Diocese “contain four cases, reported between the years 2001 and 2020. All deserved the due referral, both civil and canonical, justifying the Bishop of Beja that "the referred processes had different outcomes resulting in the archiving, acquittal and one is still waiting for a court ruling”, concluded.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
Photo: copyright
