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(20 Feb 2020) Three deaf survivors of sexual abuse by priests in Argentina called on Pope Francis on Thursday to do more to tackle sexual assault in the Catholic Church.
The survivors and their defenders see an opportunity for a Vatican reckoning following criminal convictions handed down in Argentina in November in cases brought by the three former students at the Catholic-run Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Children.
The case has directly implicated the Argentine pope since Francis was told about one of the priestly abusers in Argentina as early as 2014 by former students at the Provolo school in Verona, Italy, who said they were also abused by the priest.
"All the deaf, and the people who can hear as well, we have always suffered, we have suffered abuse from priests, and we need this to change. Enough," said Daniel Oscar Sgardelis, one of the three victims, cutting his arms through the air to deliver his message in sign language during a moving press conference.
After he spoke, the people on the podium and many in the room lifted both their hands in the air and waved them around, sign language for applause.
The delegation of Argentine victims, their lawyers and supporters from Argentina and the United States were taking their case to Rome hoping to win an audience with the pope.
So far, the request has gone unanswered, so instead they held out photos of their abusers in front of journalists at the edge of St. Peter's Square.
Three months ago, a court in Argentina sentenced two priests to more than 40 years in prison for sexually abusing deaf children at the Provolo school in the northwestern municipality of Lujan de Cuyo.
The survivors are demanding that the priests be defrocked, the maximum punishment imposed by the Catholic Church, however, usually the Vatican waits for all criminal appeals to be exhausted before meting out church punishments.
The victims' visit to Rome came a year after the Pope presided over a conference of bishops calling for zero tolerance of sexual abuse.

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