Reuters
Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:31am EDT
VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) – Pope Benedict begged forgiveness from God and victims of child sexual abuse by priests on Friday and vowed that the Catholic Church would do everything in its power to ensure that it never happens again.
Benedict made his comments, some of his clearest ever about the scandal that has swept the Church around the world, during a homily in St Peter’s Square to conclude the Roman Catholic Church’s “Year of the Priest” celebrations.
Wearing white and gold vestments as he spoke to some 15,000 priests, Benedict said the year that was to have celebrated the priesthood had been marred because “the sins of priests came to light, particularly the abuse of the little ones.”
“We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again,” he said.
Hundreds of cases of sexual and physical abuse of youths by priests in recent decades have come to light in Europe and the United States as investigations encourage long-silent victims to finally go public with their complaints.
A group for victims said the pope had not gone far enough.
“These are strong words but not strong actions,” said Peter Isely of the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), whose leaders came to Rome for the event.
“The pope should have announced an absolute zero tolerance approach to priests that abuse around the world, ensuring that they will be immediately removed from priesthood. This is a much more important move than showing remorse,” he told Reuters.
Benedict himself has been accused of turning a blind eye in 1980, when he was archbishop of Munich in his native Germany, to the case of a priest who was sent there for therapy after sexually abusing children and soon transferred to parish work.
The Vatican has said a subordinate took that decision.
SCREENING CANDIDATES
In his sermon, the 83-year-old pope, who met abuse victims in the United States, Australia and Malta and has decried “sin within the Church,” also promised that the Church would enact stronger controls on choosing men who enter the priesthood.
“We will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation…,” he said.
Victim groups said they were also disappointed that the pope did not mention the responsibility of bishops, who have been accused of moving predator priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them or turning them over to the law.
“The pope can’t put priests who commit such crimes in jail, and that is what the Church needs to address,” Isely said.
In his sermon, Benedict said the worldwide community of Catholic priests, numbering more than 400,000, should see the sexual abuse scandal and its repercussions as “a summons to purification” for themselves and for the entire Church.
Five bishops in Europe have already resigned. One has admitted sexual abuse, another is under investigation and three have stepped down over their handling of abuse cases.
The scandal has hit Catholic communities in the United States, Ireland, Belgium and Germanyparticularly hard.
A poll two months ago in Germany showed that a majority of people had lost confidence in the Church and about a quarter of the country’s Catholics are considering quitting.
Child abuse scandals in the United States about eight years ago wreaked havoc on the reputation and finances of the U.S. Catholic Church, which paid some $2 billion in settlements and several dioceses declared bankruptcy.
(Writing by Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Ella Ide; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
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Pope Pleads for Forgiveness Over Abuse Scandal
New York Times
Published: June 11, 2010
By RACHEL DONADIO
VATICAN CITY — Addressing the sex abuse crisis for the first time from the seat of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI begged forgiveness on Friday, saying the church would do “everything possible” to prevent priests from abusing children.
“We, too, insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again,” Benedict told thousands of priests and faithful gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for celebrations marking the end of the Vatican’s Year of the Priest.
The pope’s remarks did not substantively go beyond what he had already said in a letter to Irish Catholics in March and in a private meeting with victims of sex abuse on Malta in April, but it was the first time Benedict had mentioned the crisis from Saint Peter’s Basilica, the heart of the church itself, and on an occasion focused on priests.
“In this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light — particularly the abuse of the little ones,” the pope said.
He added that the church, “in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.” The pope did not mention any specific actions the church was planning to take to combat abuse, as some had hoped, and victims’ groups said Benedict’s remarks did not go far enough.
“The root cause of this horrific and on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis remains the nearly limitless power of bishops,” said Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, in a statement.
“There must be a world-wide Catholic policy against clergy sex crimes and cover ups that is widely enforced. And we still don’t have it,” she added.
Yet the pope’s remarks on Friday seemed to signal a growing awareness of the extent of the crisis. They came weeks after the pope had said in Portugal that the greatest threat to the church came from “the sin inside the church” rather than outside., and added that “forgiveness is not a substitute for justice.” The Vatican hierarchy has also begun to shift its tone. Earlier this spring, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, dismissed media reports questioning the pope’s role handling abuse as archbishop of Munich in 1980 and as prefect for the Vatican’s doctrinal office as a calumnious “attack.”
On Thursday, it said in a front-page editorial that, “the infidelity, even profound, of some priests in some parts of the world has in fact cast a shadow over the credibility of the church in the eyes of many people.”
“The wound will take time to heal and nothing will be as if nothing had happened,” it added.
“Some have called it an ‘annus horribilis,’ but in reality it has been a year of grace,” the paper wrote, because “the seed of the priests’ inner renewal that has been planted and their more incisive witness of the Gospel will bear fruit.”
In Saint Peter’s Square on Friday, the Rev. Innocent Jooji, a priest from Abuja, Nigeria, said he welcomed the pope’s remarks on the sex abuse crisis, and wished he would say more. “This is not only the problem of the west, it is a global problem,” Father Jooji said.
“He should go around to a few continents to talk about sex abuse, and the impact would be more,” he added of Benedict. “It’s a problem to face. We need more conversation.”