Vatican tries to rein in expectations for sexual abuse summit

By Chico Harlan February 9 at 6:00 AM

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is preparing to convene an unprecedented summit on sex abuse this month, widely viewed as among the most pivotal moments of his papacy, but the Vatican is cautioning not to expect too much.

“I permit myself to say that I’ve perceived a bit of an inflated expectation,” Francis said. “We need to deflate the expectations.”

The Holy See’s press office released a statement calling the meeting just one stage in a 15-year journey.

The pope described his goal as educating bishops on the problem of abuse and how properly to handle it — which advocates say the church has talked about for years.

Francis called for the summit while facing a crescendo of sexual abuse scandals across the Catholic world — cases in which bishops and cardinals are alleged to have enabled abuse or carried it out themselves.

-snip-