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	Pope Apologizes to Irish Catholics for Abuse Cases (update1) By Sara Gay Forden and Jeffrey Donovan Business Week March 20, 2010 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-20/pope-apologizes-to-irish-catholics-for-sexual-abuse-cases.html March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI apologized to victims of child sex abuse in Ireland and said “grave errors” were committed by Catholic authorities in the country after scandals involving priests emerged over decades. “You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry,” the pope said today in a letter to Irish Catholics, his first apology to them over the abuse cases. The letter, distributed to reporters at the Vatican, didn’t go far enough, according to One in Four, an Irish group for sexual abuse victims. The pontiff has struggled to contain the damage to the church and its reputation from the Irish scandals, which have been followed by similar cases in his native Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Benedict has been accused by Irish victims of being slow to respond to probes that documented “endemic” abuse of children by priests since the 1930s. In his letter, the 82-year-old pope said those responsible for abuse must be punished. “You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals.” He called for “decisive action” to repair the damage to the Church and said he would arrange a visit of some dioceses in Ireland “in due course.” ‘Falls Short’ One in Four, an Irish group for sexual abuse victims, said the letter “falls short” of addressing their concerns. “Pope Benedict has passed up a glorious opportunity to address the core issue in the clerical sexual abuse scandal: the deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children,” Maeve Lewis, the group’s executive director, said in an e-mailed statement. “The Pope speaks only of failures in the Irish Church, and neglects the role of the Vatican.” Cardinal Sean Brady, Ireland’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, said it’s “evident from the letter that Pope Benedict is deeply dismayed by what he refers to as sinful and criminal acts,” His comments to worshippers at Armagh Cathedral in Northern Ireland were broadcast live on the church’s Web site. Brady apologized last week for his role in interviewing, under an oath of secrecy, two victims of a pedophile priest. The abuse wasn’t reported to police and the priest wasn’t charged with sex abuse until 1994. Scandals Irish church authorities routinely covered up sexual abuse of children by priests in Dublin to avoid scandals and protect their assets, according to a Dublin Archdiocese report released on Nov. 26. The report was described by Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern as a catalog of “evil after evil.” The Catholic Church has been grappling in recent years with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in countries ranging from the U.S. to Ireland to Australia. Priests have been jailed and defrocked, while the church has faced criticism for covering up the allegations by moving pedophile priests from parish to parish. Benedict, during his tenure as archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, played a role in a decision to allow a priest accused of molestation to undergo therapy, the German Catholic Church said on March 12. The priest was later reassigned by another church official and committed more abuse, according to a statement by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. A spokesman for the Vatican, Federico Lombardi, said on March 12 the pope was “extraneous” to the events in Munich. The leader of more than a billion Catholics, Benedict became the first pontiff to apologize to victims of abuse in 2008 on a visit to the U.S. and Australia. --With assistance from Louisa Fahy in Dublin. Editors: Dan Liefgreen, Nathaniel Espino To contact the reporter on this story: Jeffrey Donovan in Rome at jdonovan26@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Fraher at jfraher@bloomberg.net
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