Guardian
April 22, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/22/catholic-church-apology-child-abuse
Catholic bishops in England and Wales today asked for forgiveness and offered a "heartfelt" apology for the child abuse scandal that has engulfed the church.
A joint statement presented by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, was issued at the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and will go out to all parishes at the end of a plenary meeting in Leeds.
The statement described the crimes carried out by some priests and religious figures as a "profound scandal" and said: "They bring deep shame to the whole church. But shame is not enough. The abuse of children is a grievous sin against God. Therefore we focus not on shame but on our sorrow for these sins ... We ask their pardon, and the pardon of God for these terrible deeds done in our midst. There can be no excuses."
The statement said the church would work with safeguarding commissions within its dioceses to ensure relevant steps were taken to protect against any further abuse and atone for those who were already victims.
The statement of contrition follows remarks yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI in which he made his first call for change since a series of accusations of abuse engulfed the Catholic church.
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| Archbishop Vincent Nichols, president of the Bishops\' Conference of England and Wales. Photo by Sarah Lee |
In his weekly public audience in St Peter's Square, the pope spoke of an earlier statement issued by the Vatican pledging that the church would take action to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal. The statement said the church would do everything in its power to bring justice against abusive priests and would implement "effective measures" to protect children.
The pope is set to formally accept the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty, who admitted in December that he had not challenged the Dublin archdiocese's past practice of concealing child abuse complaints from the police.
Moriarty will be the latest Irish bishop to have his resignation ratified by the papacy following the fallout from the Murphy report on child abuse in Ireland. He has already made it known that he expected that the Vatican would agree to his offer to resign.
He described his resignation as "the most difficult decision of my ministry" and admitted that he had not originally intended to resign after the publication of the Murphy report in November.
"However, renewal must begin with accepting the responsibility for the past. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that we needed a new beginning, and that I could play my part in opening the way," he added.
Despite today's expected announcement, the fate of Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, who offered their resignations last Christmas Eve, also in the wake of the Murphy report, remains unclear. Last month the pope accepted the resignation of another member of the Irish hierarchy, the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee.
The church has been inundated by criticism since the Murphy report on decades of child abuse in Ireland, which revealed that paedophile priests were shielded by peers and officials. The wider Catholic church has been hit by sex abuse scandals this year, with victims coming forward in Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and the US.
Thousands of people have signed a petition on Downing Street's website against the pope's four-day visit to England and Scotland in September.
The petition, launched by gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, says the visit, to cost an estimated £15m, should not be funded by the British taxpayer.
During his weekly public audience, the pope recounted his tearful weekend encounter in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as children by priests in a church-run orphanage. The pope met the men in the Vatican's embassy, praying with them and listening to their stories.
"I shared with them their suffering, and emotionally prayed with them, assuring them of church action," he told the audience.
At the time of the private meeting on Sunday, the Vatican issued a statement saying the pope had told the men that the church would do everything in its power to bring justice to abusive priests and would implement "effective measures" to protect children. Neither the pope nor the Vatican has elaborated on what action or measures are being considered. Various national bishops' conferences have over the years implemented norms for handling cases of priests who sexually abuse children.
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