STA, 6 March 2019 - Archbishop of Ljubljana Stanislav Zore has argued for the weekly paper Družina that sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is not a systemic problem. While underlining efforts to secure as much protection for minors as possible, he said the Church was part of human society "with all its flaws".
Zore said that "we will never reach a point where there will be no more mistakes, when there won't be a single case of abuse".
He argued that "we remain a human society, the Church and society in general, with all its flaws. "Then it would probably be necessary to root out people as such. And this is not possible."
The Church is however striving "to reach the highest possible level of protection for minors and everybody else within the Church and society at large".
Echoing the recent statements of Pope Francis, Zore said that the Church is not at point zero when it comes to efforts to tackle sexual abuse, with "some Bishops Conferences starting on this path already in the previous century".
"In Slovenia too, we've had the first guidelines since 2006 which we've been upgrading until last year," he said, announcing additional upgrades when necessary.
He meanwhile believes the discussion should give more focus to prevention, meaning education. Listing possible measures, he mentioned caution when selecting candidates for theology studies and thorough checks after the studies.
As to his conviction that sexual abuse within the Church is not a systemic issue, he spoke of "rotten apples among many healthy ones, although this does not reduce their responsibility or the responsibility of the Church".
"In Boston, an example of tackling sexual abuse, the share of perpetrators among all priests in the period for which cases of sexual abuse were handled was 2%. In Philadelphia the share was 1.4%, in Chicago 1.8%," Zore said.
He dismissed those arguing the Church no longer had the right to preach the gospel, saying that although most cases of paedophilia occurred within families, he did not preconceive of parents in general as paedophiles.
"Nobody is without sin. But being a sinner should not mean you giving up your calling as a mother, father. Follow this calling, because it is yours. In the same way, preaching the gospel remains the calling of the Church."
