The 2015 film, Spotlight brought that to the fore the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and prompted a raft of people to come out and speak up.

Before then, across the 60s and 70s, the Church was always logged in one allegation or the other of sexual abuse, mostly against boys.

In 1995, amid sexual abuse allegations, the Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, stepped down, rocking the Church. After the expose published by the Boston Globe Newspaper, the Pope was forced to offer an apology for Catholic Church's failure to stop clergy sexual abuse.

According to Time Magazine, at a summit before nearly 190 church leaders for the third day of Pope Francis’ four-day tutorial on preventing abuse and protecting children on Saturday, February 23, 2019, prominent Nigerian Reverend, Sister Veronica Openibo decried the culture of silence around the Church as regards sexual abuse and charges the church to be more transparent in admitting the wrongs done.

Backing one of the few females invited to the summit, Sister Openibo, German Cardinal, Reinhard Marx, told the summit that of the Church’s extreme acts to keep the scandal a secret, destroying files trails and silencing victims while ignoring sacrosanct rules of church were terrible. Cardinal Marx also called for a redefinition of the Vatican’s legal code of secrecy, known as the “pontifical secret.”

Sister Openibo said, “How could the clerical church have kept silent, covering these atrocities? We must acknowledge that our mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency have brought us to this disgraceful and scandalous place we find ourselves as a church.”

Cardinal Marx for his part said that the key to restoring trust in the church and preventing further inquests is to publish accurate statistics on the issue. He said, “If we do not succeed, we either squander the chance to maintain a level of self-determination regarding information, or we expose ourselves to the suspicion of covering up.”

As reported by Time Magazine, the first two days of the summit organized by Pope Francis focused on the responsibility of church leaders in protecting their people and on accountability when they fail to properly protect young people from predatory priests.

The prominent Nigerian religious leader praised Pop Francis for admitting his wrongdoing in covering a Bishop in Chile, who witnessed the abuse of a victim and did nothing, “I admire you, Brother Francis, for taking time as a true Jesuit, to discern and be humble enough to change your mind, to apologize and take action – an example for all of us.”

Sister Openibo, however, warned churches in Asia and Africa to stop using poverty and conflict as an excuse for covering sexual abuse saying, “This storm will not pass by.”

Pariticipants like Bishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze, president of the Nigerian Bishops Conference agreed with Sister Openibo and said, “Everybody is on the same page now: that this is a crime that must be tackled… And if everybody is on the same page then we will do more to make sure that this doesn’t happen again in the church.”

Finally, Sister Openibo called for discussion on a host of controversial issues. She questioned the necessity of seminaries and why abusive clergymen are not dismissed.