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Pope Francis Asks for Forgiveness for Priests Who Molested Children

Irish Mirror
April 10, 2014

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/pope-francis-asks-forgiveness-priests-3400917

Pope Francis today asked for forgiveness for priests who molested children in some of his strongest words ever on the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis.

"I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children," he told members of a children's' rights group according to Vatican Radio.

He added: "The Church is aware of this damage.

"It is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the Church and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem and the sanctions that must be imposed.

"On the contrary, I think we must be even stronger. You don't play around with the lives of children."

The inauguration mass of Pope Francis

The Catholic Church's handling of abuse allegations has long been a controversial topic with scandals such as Ireland’s Magda­lene laundries where girls were used as forced labour.

In recent years, thousands of abuse claims, dating back several decades have been revealed.

Pope Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI issued an apology for abuses.

 

 

 

 

 




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