During his week visit to the Évora district, Luís Montenegro was confronted by journalists this Wednesday with a difficult question. “Do you agree with the statements of the President of the Republic that there are about 400 cases of pedophilia in the church?” Luís Montenegro avoided the direct question, but emphasized: “All cases, from the first to the last, deserve a thorough and exacting investigation and violators should be punished”.
Luís Montenegro, who will meet Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the early afternoon, insisted that the crime of pedophilia “is horrendous and must be eradicated from our society”, which “is done with the identification of cases”. He defended the “examination to the last consequences and the punishment of those responsible, whoever they are”.
He also expressed the wish that the Church’s move towards investigating cases will eventually lead to the initiation of respective criminal proceedings.
The journalists insisted, “But do you agree with the president?” Montenegro’s response was again indirect: “They are all equally important and worth investigating. It is a terrible crime and it is abhorrent to the nature of all of us and to the social organization. We must be intolerant of those who commit it.”
“And preferably without political interference?” – insisted a journalist. “It was what was missing! In this and all other investigations,” the Social Democratic leader defended. Montenegro set off at a brisk pace for another visit en route through Évora, before heading to Lisbon, where he admitted to having discussed the matter with the president of the republic. Even because Marcelo came out publicly to say that “he was misunderstood”.
Source: DN
