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	Pope's Pastoral Letter on Clerical Abuse Is Awaited Waterford Today February 24, 2010 http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8836&Itemid=11070&ed=851 IRELAND -- The unprecedented visit of 24 Irish bishops to Rome to meet with senior Vatican church representatives and Pope Benedict XVI must have been a chastening experience for the Irish clerics. The extent of the clerical sex abuse scandal in Ireland over decades has sickened the nation and has poisoned the atmosphere between Irish clergy and many Irish Catholics. The response to reports of the meetings between the Pope, curial cardinals and the Irish bishops must also have dismayed the Irish clergy. Many ordinary Catholics interviewed by press and electronic media were outspoken in their disappointment at what they felt was the lacking of a suitable apology from Rome to the victims of clerical abuse. Spokespersons for victims were equally scathing in their comments, with all of them stating that the lack of an apology by Pope Benedict was extremely hurtful. It was clear from these comments that the victims of clerical sex abuse are still hurting from their experiences and that the healing process has not yet commenced for many of the victims. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin one of the few clerics to emerge with honour was clear in his condemnation of the abuse and said a shared sense of concern about the handling of the abuse had been expressed and that each person needed to accept their specific responsibilities. He described the meetings in Rome as part of a process of reconciling the issue of clerical child abuse. He said the process would be a long road of regret and repen-tance and looking to the future to ensure that structures continue to be as robust and as valid as they wanted them to be. The statement issued by the Pope which said a "weakening of faith" had been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of children also annoyed many spokespersons of clerical sex abuse. However, it was clear from other spokespersons from both the Irish and Vatican clerics His Holiness Pope Benedict was distraught and horrified by the revelations that had emerged from the clerical sex abuse scandal in Ireland. Equally the revelations emerging in Germany about similar abuses and the litany of abuse in the USA by clerics has shown that the level of abuse has worldwide connotations and serious implications for the future of the Catholic Church. With the pre-eminence of the global information village and media the degree of scrutiny being directed at the clerical sex abuse scandals worldwide has been forensic in the extreme. The Bishop of Waterford William Lee has said that clerical sex abuse will be at the heart of the pastoral letter to be issued by Pope Benedict. He said that the hurt of the abused was at the very heart of this pastoral letter. What Pope Benedict says in this letter will be crucial to helping the sufferers of clerical child abuse to embark on the healing process. A new spirit of humility by Irish clergy will also help matters.
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