LISBON – In the wake of a devastating clerical sexual abuse scandal in a country already buffeted by secularisation and increasing pluralism, Pope Francis at the end of his first day in Portugal offered words of comfort, urging bishops not to be overcome by discouragement.
Referring to the Gospel passage in which Jesus tells Peter and other fisherman to cast their nets out again despite a full night of fishing with no catch, the pope said that as pastors, “we can feel a similar weariness, when we seem to be holding only empty nets.”
