Cardinal Cupich presented a framework for “clear procedures to hold bishops involved in misconduct and mishandling [of abuse cases] accountable.”

“No bishop may say to himself, ‘The problem of abuse in the church does not concern me because things are different in my part of the world,’” the archbishop of Bombay told bishops gathered in Rome.

Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would “sustain” summit participants and “help us to turn this evil into an opportunity for awareness and purification.”

Cardinal Tagle urged church leaders not to shy away from acknowledging the pain of victims.

Opening the Vatican summit on the clerical sexual abuse crisis, the pope said, “The holy people of God are watching and are awaiting from us not simple, predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures.”

“We all know that canon law has to be changed so that it stops protecting the priesthood of ordained men over the lives of children," Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told reporters.