Rome, Italy - Roman Catholic Church leaders unveiled an Internet teaching project on Thursday to help clergy around the world root out pedophiles in their ranks and protect children from potential abusers.
Ending a four-day conference on child abuse in Rome, Father Francois-Xavier Dumortier said the 1.2 million euro ($1.60 million) project would provide multilingual advice and access to research on pedophilia and how to respond to the problem.
“It will help to develop a culture of listening…a different face to the culture of silence,” said Dumortier, who is rector at the Pontifical Gregorian University where the conference was held.
An association for victims of abuse, while not commenting directly on the Internet project, has dismissed the conference as “window dressing” and said the Vatican should publish its documentation on abuse and hand it over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
Victims’ groups for years have accused some bishops in the Church of preferring silence and cover-up to coming clean on the scandal, which has darkened the image of the Church around the world.