Dallas, Texas, Sep 22, 2018 / 05:19 am
While the so-called summer of scandals has hit the Church hard both in the United States and throughout the world, the faith of Catholics at the National V Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas, remains largely unshaken.
"We're heartbroken from what we found out, because it doesn't move my faith," Rocio Portillo, an Encuentro participant from Las Vegas, told CNA. "It doesn't move my belief in my Church, and I'm really proud to be Catholic and to be brought up in that faith and to bring that to my children."
The National V Encuentro, held Sept. 20-23, is the culmination of a years-long process at the parish, diocesan and regional levels of listening to and empowering Hispanic and Latino Catholics.
The public disclosure of allegations of sexual misconduct against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick in June 2018 triggered a succession of public accusations that McCarrick had sexually assaulted or abused seminarians and priests over a period of decades, as well as a further accusation that he had sexually abused a minor.