He used several partly improvised speeches in Belgium at the end of September and a carefully staged solemn act of penance in St Peter's Basilica on the eve of the Synod on Synodality.
He expressly distanced himself from earlier relativisations of abuse in the Church and made the painful topic a top priority several times at short intervals.
In doing so, he not only formulated the issue much more sharply than in previous statements; he also broadened the concept of abuse and spoke of a connection between abuse of power, manipulation of conscience (spiritual abuse) and sexual abuse.
Criticism of earlier statements
In his closing speech at the so-called anti-abuse summit in Rome in February 2019, he reminded the audience in detail that most cases of abuse take place in families and outside of the church.
He described the perpetrators in the priesthood as victims of the devil. At the time, these remarks triggered a great deal of criticism, including from those affected by abuse.
Now, at a meeting with the King and the head of government of Belgium, he said: "Someone said to me: Holy Father, consider that according to statistics, the vast majority of abuse takes place in the family or in the neighbourhood or in the field of sport, in school. - Just one is enough to be ashamed of! In the Church we must ask forgiveness for this; others should ask forgiveness for their part. This is our shame and our humiliation."
He formulated these words with particular vigour and in deviation from the speech manuscript.
Previously, he even compared the abuse to the murder of innocent children by King Herod, as reported in the New Testament. He said: "Brothers and sisters, this is the shame! The shame that we must all tackle today, for which we must ask forgiveness, the problem that we must solve: the shame of abuse, of child abuse. We think of the time of the holy innocent children and say: 'Oh, what a tragedy, what King Herod did!', but today there is this crime in the Church; the Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation in Christian humility. And it must create all the conditions so that this does not happen again."
Francis made the connection between clerical abuse of power and sexual abuse clearer than on previous occasions. He explained that the Church must learn from the victims "to be a Church that makes itself the servant of all, without enslaving anyone. Yes, because one root of violence lies in the abuse of power, when we use the functions we hold to oppress or manipulate others."
Tough action against lay people too
With more vigour than before, he condemned any attempt at cover-up and called for the punishment of perpetrators and cover-ups - bishops included. In the large open-air closing mass, he said to the applause of tens of thousands of listeners - again partly in free speech: "We will all be judged, and there is no place for abuse, there is no place for covering up abuse. I call on everyone: Do not cover up abuse! I call on the bishops: Do not cover up abuse! The perpetrators of abuse must be condemned and they must be helped so that they can be cured of this disease of abuse. Evil must not be hidden: Evil must be brought to light so that it becomes known, as some victims of abuse have courageously done. It should be known. And the perpetrator should be judged. The abuser should be judged, whether layman, laywoman, priest or bishop: he should be judged."
The Pope's reference to lay people as perpetrators corresponds with his unusually harsh action against members of the lay association "Sodalicio" in Peru, whose founder Luis Fernando Figari is accused of multiple offences of sexual abuse.
In Peru, Francis has made several examples of the Sodalicio and its environment in recent months. He even went so far as to threaten excommunication to a man and a woman who, in his view, had attempted to obstruct the Vatican's investigations into perpetrators of abuse in the group by improper means.
The high point and crowning conclusion of this confrontation with the abuse scandal on a new level of quality was the public act of penance in St Peter's Basilica on the eve of the synod. Here the Pope declared: "We can no longer invoke the name of God without first asking our brothers and sisters for forgiveness."
He went on to say: "We must ask ourselves what responsibility we have if we do not succeed in stopping evil with good." The confession of guilt is "an opportunity to restore trust in the Church and trust in the Church, which has been broken by our mistakes and sins, to heal the wounds that are still bleeding and to loosen the shackles of injustice."