Paedophile priests face God’s wrath, says Pope

POPE Francis yesterday told paedophile priests hiding within the Roman Catholic Church that they were ‘tools of Satan’ and would face ‘the wrath of God’.

As he closed a summit aimed at ending sex abuse by the clergy, Francis pledged to stop the cover-ups by their superiors and prioritise victims of this ‘brazen, aggressive and destructive evil’.

But after he stopped short of putting any concrete measures in place, Swiss victim Jean-Marie Furbringer said: ‘Honestly it’s a pastoral “blah blah”, saying it’s the fault of the devil.

‘They are pulling the wool over our eyes, so that they don’t have to directly address the Church’s problems.’

Francis made his remarks at the end of Mass before 190 bishops and other Catholic leaders who had been summoned to Rome over the widespread and long-running scandals.

The Pope said: ‘Consecrated persons chosen by God to guide souls to salvation, let themselves be dominated by their human frailty or sickness and thus become tools of Satan.

‘In people’s justified anger, the Church sees the reflection of the wrath of God, betrayed and insulted by these deceitful consecrated persons.’