this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight sex abuse children and the catholic church at the vatican the church is meeting bishops convene to hear the children's kruk pope francis says the world is expecting not just condemnation but also concrete action but is this summit too little too late also coming up loosening germany's controversial advertising ban on abortions parliament votes to make it easier for women to find doctors who can terminate their pregnancies. and german guns being

used in massacres abroad a judge's find the former employees of gun maker heckler and koch guilty of illegally exporting weapons to mexico. it's good to have you with us an unprecedented summit on sex abuse is underway at the vatican pope francis kicked off a landmark gathering today with bishops from around the world to address clerical sex abuse francis began before the meeting by saying that the church must listen to abuse victims but some survivors to say the pope's efforts do not go far enough and that he's been too slow to act the summit comes after an avalanche of allegations against catholic priests accusing them of molesting children and raping not. people are rightly it's uncharted territory for the one hundred ninety heads of bishops

conferences and religious orders present here. they were summoned to the vatican to publicly address the child abuse crisis within the catholic church it's a meeting marked by shame a cardinal who is taken as a filipino even broke into tears the wont of the recent cries carried the memory of illicit suffering. but they also carry the memory of our weakness and so full. regret alone can change decades of systematic sexual abuse. and i hope francis made it clear to the priests that he won't let them off easy he says at the center of the holy people of god looking at us and do not expect from us simple and predictable condemnations but concrete and effective measures to. survive

this one the pope to quickly follow his words with deeds. zero tolerance for any priest that has sexually assaulted a child around the world written into the universal church law because it's not universal church law right now it's not their law pope francis could do it he could do it by monday morning he's the only one that can do it. minor changes to canon law i expect that as an outcome more consequential demands such as making it every choir meant to report suspected abuse of priests to the police are unlikely to be met but some remain hopeful emphasizing that the status quo is simply not an option . there needs to be common concrete changes why wouldn't it be optimistic also do we want an organization that is going to continue to allow the rape of children and they be where bishops are not held accountable. to lead you to maybe listening to

the emotional testimonies from victims in the coming days will convince church leaders to make the necessary changes and joining now with the big table by our religious affairs correspondent martin jacks good to see you mark so let's talk about the significance of this conference there's never been one like it before are we getting our hopes up if we expect something significant to come out of. there is a lot of expectation it's very unclear from reading both media specialist media and people around the church what is the object of that expectation you know i mean one of the things that tends to happen would sexual abuse in the church is that there are a lot of good words there's a lot of praying there's a lot of penance but twenty years twenty years down the line and that's a very long time i mean we have almost nothing in the public sphere that last twenty years we still do not have brought a call we still do not have a policy and the church has still to say exactly what are the steps of their going

to take for the zero tolerance approach which they've been talking and given the church's history as you say we're talking about decades here where things were covered up and nothing was done. is there is there any reason to expect then that that a change is in the making and meet with a reasonable person be justified in expecting some kind of change to come after this conference i mean recently could mean many different things here in the recent will thing to the man would be to the man there truly a way for the church to redress justice and that most likely means turning evidence to national authorities across the board the very same time any body that looks at the church with some degree of you know some degree of detail understands that this is a massive institution that cannot be easily steered so that goes to say that any change in institutional practices that goes all the way from st peter's square all the way down to the small bars in manila or in. bolivia will take an enormous amount of effort that would most likely less generation so that

a very short answer to that is no there is no immediate silver bullet but there are signs that there is something a food earlier we spoke with robert holtz and who was president of road to recovery that's an organization that assists sexual abuse victims and we asked him about the role of pope francis. has not taken actions for this new what he said. yes he can keep avoiding it as he has done throughout his papacy but it only leads to further and further distress and really traumatization of victims and yes he certainly can't continue on this path but it's going to lead to a further implosion of the catholic church which is imploding daily because actions have not been taken to this point and if this summit does not create substantive changes in the way the church operates then the pope probably

will be called to resign that's quite a statement there to make the pope has to resign if nothing comes out of this conference do you agree you know i mean i think that this is this is a bit too much i mean you know it's clear that there has been nowhere near the results and then would expect i don't think it's true to say that nothing has happened over the last twenty years i mean once again the bone that we have is that if this is a cover up and we are no longer really just talking about sexual abuse but we're talking actually about all the machine around it so we're really talking about a cover up of these proportions it is perfectly understandable that the brothers of breaking apart those making the sums will take a very long time i would agree i mean fully that as a matter of fact the results have not been satisfactory but that this not mean in a new way that there had been no results we say things that twenty years ago or thirty years ago would have been absolutely unthinkable that is true i mean things are talked about now that were not talked about back then this conference will not address martin the problem of sexual abuse of nuns priests raping nuns why because

they via here that the most essentially the highest priority is the sexual abuse of children i'm not sure i would lead one to be in the business of having to parcel out what kind of a sexual crime comes how you're in the least bad you do i do have been to agree that you know with sexual sexual crimes against children a discussion of scale in this many places with this many people in charge is something that is beyond outrageous and needs immediate immediate action or religious affairs correspondent mark gatiss always martin we appreciate your insights thank you every. well here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world of business where the president nicolas maduro has ordered the country's border with brazil to be closed his government wants to stop humanitarian aid from getting in meanwhile many even where he lives have been crossing the border with colombia on foot to collect that a but says the supplies are a pretext for u.s.

military intervention he's also considering shutting the border with colombia forensic scientists in syria say they found the largest mass grave yet containing the bodies of people killed by islamic state militants located just outside the former i.d.f. stronghold of raka the grave is estimated to hold around three and a half thousand bodies this is the ninth mass grave to be found near rock doctors here in germany say they've developed a new blood test that can detect whether a woman has breast cancer researchers at the university of heidelberg say the test is as reliable as a mammogram but cost lest and comes without exposure to radiation. well saying here in germany the parliament today voted to loosen of all that bans doctors from advertising abortions now up until now it's been a crime for doctors and hospitals to even say on their websites that they perform abortions now we will be easier for pregnant women in germany to inform themselves

about their options for terminating a pregnancy although many restrictions will still apply. gabriella housing is one if thousands of his in jenny has been caught up in the center of the country's to paint revolution cats and. the fact that abortion is a criminal mind. that it's illegal in germany the woman to say i wouldn't change me . abortion is in fact permitted in germany but only in the early stages of pregnancy it can only be carried out later in cases of rape or on medical grounds otherwise the law states abortions are only legal within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy if the woman attends mandatory counseling and then waits another three days before the abortion. but the debate has focused on the tiny article two hundred nineteen any of germany's criminal code it dated back to the nazi era and made it a crime for doctors to publicly advertise abortions gabrielle holder is one of the

hundreds of doctors who are accused of violating the article in her case it was due to information on the clinic website stating that she carries out abortions so many doctors say they feel they've been targeted just for doing their job since two thousand and three the number of doctors carrying out abortions has fallen by forty percent. these activists these activists who stop women on the sidewalk from going to the counseling centers or clinic they're simply frightening they're traumatizing for women. and then there's the fact that this criminal punishment weighs down on the issue of abortion lasted. that. many conservatives in germany supported the ban on advertising abortion the principle must be that we do not advertise abortions it's forbidden and unborn life must be protected. but under the new compromise long doctors will now be able to inform the

public that they carry out abortions but they still can't provide any further information in their literature or online that's less than what junior coalition partner the social democrats wanted. to talk about also from the social democratic side with two main objectives to safeguard women's right to information and to guarantee legal security for doctors and for dr heider the legal compromise doesn't go far enough she wants to see article two hundred nineteen a abolished completely . it is that i support protection of life but not when it's against women instead it should be with women offer something to offer assurance that their careers won't be damaged if they have children make contraception free for all ages but we just don't have that guy about this how many such reforms could take years to happen in germany if a tool for now the long standing to be discussing abortion has started to change

a german gun maker has been fined three point seven million euros for illegally exporting thousands of assault rifles to crisis regions in mexico two former employees of the company heckler and koch have been given suspended jail terms and germany is among the world's top arms exports and this case has highlighted the impact of german arms manufacturing in conflict regions around the the presiding judge said the case was not a tribe you know on german weapons makers but it was the company heckler and koch that was held primarily responsible for the illegal sales of arms the firm now has to pay a hefty fine. with these multiple is because i'm too was from this judgment illustrates the excesses of weapons exporting in this country that's clear that formal declarations about where arms are go and don't work and can be swapped are falsified it will without any checks by the authorities as the game comes we will

do it and it was proven the it while the region of mexico was blacklisted but between two thousand and six and two thousand and nine heckler and koch exploded four point one million euros worth of assault rifles there in two thousand and fourteen six people were killed and forty three students disappeared without a trace mexican police blame local criminals and believe the weapons. got caught should leniency to five defendants accused of being involved in the illegal arms sales to were given suspended sentences while three were acquitted. activists who want germany to scale back the highly profitable arms manufacturing sector say the case shows that the country is too cavalier about selling guns throughout the world germany approves some six point two billion arm sales in the year twenty seventeen. are some sports news now in the round of thirty two of football's europa league german side i'm talking frankfurt have beaten ukrainian

outfit shakhtar donetsk sebastian scored twice in the convincing four one victory after it to all draw in the first leg frankfurt will now advance to the last sixteen. that's all for me business is up next with christoph coker thanks for watching we will see you again sometimes. i'm secure in that volume or that's hard and in the end it's a me you're not allowed to stay here anymore we will send you that. are you familiar with this. in the smugglers were lions and. what's your story.