"This will not go away" - Archbishop on sex abuse

Abuse is a pervasive global issue that goes beyond the Church and which "will not go away", Archbishop Charles Scicluna believes.

In an interview that sheds some light on his work as the Vatican's leading sex crimes investigator, Mgr Scicluna told The Washington Post that he "hoped and prayed" that the institution can "become an example of best practices" for its way of responding to and preventing abuse. 

"But we will not solve the problem," the Archbishop told the US newspaper, calling abuse a pervasive global issues that goes beyond the church. He also told the daily that abuse "will not go away". 

Mgr. Scicluna has been travelling to Rome for a week each month since Pope Francis gave him a major role to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the Church. But he was involved in tackling abuse for years before that, having served in the Congregation of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger under the Pope John Paul II papacy.

The Pope sent him to Chile at the end of January last year to look into allegations against a bishop accused of covering up clergy crimes against minors there.

While he has interviewed hundreds of victims over the years, most of the time, Mgr.