Dec. 20, 2021

Pope Francis has said that men who violently attack women are engaged in something “almost demonic.”

He commented on some of the most powerful words used to condemn such violence in a show aired on the Italian TG5 network on Sunday night.

“Even by her husband, the number of women beaten and abused at home is very high,” Francis said in response to a question from a woman named Giovanna, a victim of domestic violence.

“The problem is that to me it’s almost demonic because it utilizes people who can’t protect themselves or try to block the blow, “he said. “It’s humiliating. It’s very humiliating.”

Giovanna said he had four children to take care of after escaping from a violent house.

Since the pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) began about two years ago, Francis has expressed several voices against domestic violence.

According to police statistics released last month, there were about 90 episodes of violence against women daily in Italy, with 62% being cases of domestic violence.

Francis said the beaten and abused women have not lost their dignity. “If you didn’t have dignity, you wouldn’t be here, so I feel dignity to you,” he told Giovanna.

Looking at another example of human misery, he heard a homeless woman talking about life on the street and a man trying to recover in a 25-year prison.

Francis has set up services in the area around the Vatican to provide homeless health care, bathing and haircut facilities in Rome.

In 2020, when the palace near St. Peter’s Square, once a monastery, vacated, he ordered it to be a homeless shelter, overturning the proposal to turn it into a luxury hotel.

REUTERS