Pope Francis, the leader of over 1 billion Roman Catholics across the world, is visiting Eastern Europe this week with stops in Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

He has been talking about issues like wealth inequality and he’s defended migrants. But, an issue that still dominates the pontiff’s attention is the decades-old child sexual abuse crisis involving Catholic clergy.

Earlier this year he brought together leaders of the Catholic Church from around the globe to the Vatican as he tried to address it.

CGTN’s John Gilmore filed this report. 

To discuss:

• Tim Lennon, sexual abuse survivor and President of SNAP
• Ray Flynn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican
• Matthias  Katsch, German activist who was sexually abused 
• Donna Doucette, executive director of a Voice of the Faithful.

For more: 

Pope Francis issued new legislation that requires Vatican personnel and Holy See diplomats to report sex abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors or possibly face fines or jail time. [via @AP and @NewsHour] https://t.co/dw9mVdovCp

— FRONTLINE (@frontlinepbs) March 29, 2019

Retired pope Benedict XVI blames swinging 60s for Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals https://t.co/zqBXboOf65

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 12, 2019