Pope Francis visits Portugal amid clergy sex abuse scandal

2023-08-10 1

Pope Francis is in Portugal to mark World Youth Day, a Vatican-endorsed international festival.

It’s the pontiff’s first foreign trip since having surgery in June and is the biggest event staged by the Catholic Church.

The Pope has been attending a welcome ceremony and meeting the Portuguese president and other diplomats.

It's likely that this visit may be overshadowed by a recent official report detailing the sexual abuse of nearly 5,000 children by Portuguese clergy, mainly priests, over a 70-year period.