Pope ‘ashamed’ by Church’s sexual abuse

DUBLIN: Pope Francis on Saturday said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church’s failure to adequately address the “repellent crimes” of sex abuse by clergy and that the “failure of ecclesiastical authorities” to address abuse has “rightly given rise to outrage”.

“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities -- bishops, religious superiors, priests and others -- adequately to address these appalling crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments,” the Pope said during an address at Dublin Castle.

However, he failed to specifically mention the current scandal over a US grand jury report documenting at least 1,000 cases of clerical paedophilia. He also did not discuss concrete changes in laws or transparency or address the question of the Vatican’s complicity in the abuse cases, CNN reported.

“I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” the Pontiff told a room filled with members of the Irish government, lawmakers and diplomats.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who spoke before the Pope, did not skirt the current abuse revelations that emerged in Pennsylvania.

“In recent weeks, we have all listened to heart-breaking stories from Pennsylvania of brutal crimes perpetrated by people within the Catholic Church, and then obscured to protect the institution at the expense of innocent victims,” he said, referring to the investigation in the US state that found that over 1,000 identifiable minors had been abused by 300 priests.