- Title: Billboard denouncing clergy sex abuse put up in Lisbon ahead of pope arrival
- Date: 2nd August 2023
- Summary: LISBON, PORTUGAL (August 2, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BILLBOARD READING IN ENGLISH "4800+ CHILDREN ABUSED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN PORTUGAL #JMJ #WYD
- Embargoed: 16th August 2023 08:55
- Keywords: Catholic Church Church Church abuse Lisbon WYD clergy abuse
- Location: LISBON, PORTUGAL
- City: LISBON, PORTUGAL
- Country: Portugal
- Topics: Europe,Religion/Belief,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001166202082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A huge billboard raising awareness of sexual abuse by clergymen was put up overnight in Lisbon, just hours before Pope Francis was due to arrive in the Portuguese capital for the world's largest gathering of young Catholics on Wednesday (August 2).
The billboard was put up on the Almirante Reis avenue - one of Lisbon's longest and busiest streets - and reads: "4,800+ children abused by the Catholic Church in Portugal."
The World Youth Day event was devised by the late Pope John Paul II for Catholics in their teens or early 20s and is held every two or three years in a different city.
The event comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy - mostly priests - over seven decades. The commission in charge said that was just the "tip of the iceberg."
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