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Pope Apologizes to Irish Sex Abuse Victims

   VOA News 20 March 2010
   Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during his weekly general audience
   at St. Peter's square at The Vatican, 17 Mar 2010

Photo: AFP

   Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during his weekly general audience
   at St. Peter's square at The Vatican, 17 Mar 2010

   Pope  Benedict  has apologized to Irish Catholics for the sexual abuse
   of  children by priests, in the first papal letter to entirely address
   the issue.
   In  that  letter,  released  Saturday,  Benedict  expressed  shame and
   remorse  for  the harm done to generations of Catholics in Ireland who
   suffered sinful and criminal abuse by clergy.
   Victims said they were disappointed with the pope's message because it
   did  not admit any Vatican responsibility, nor did it mention specific
   punishment for bishops who covered up cases of abuse.
   Ireland's  leading  Roman  Catholic, Cardinal Sean Brady, who has been
   criticized  for  failing  to  stop abuses, read the pope's letter in a
   church in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
   Brady   is   under  pressure  to  resign  following  reports  that  he
   investigated  two  cases of sexual abuse in 1975, but failed to notify
   police, and made the victims sign an oath of secrecy.
   Brady  has  said  he will step down only if Pope Benedict asks for his
   resignation.
   In  Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that sexual abuse
   of  children  is  a  problem facing German society, not just the Roman
   Catholic Church.
   More  than  half of Germany's Catholic diocese have been affected by a
   scandal   involving   pedophile  priests  in  Pope  Benedict's  German
   homeland.
   The  pope  has  called  decades of sex abuse of children by priests "a
   heinous crime" and "a grave sin."

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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