SOUTH AFRICA
The Post
March 18 2013
By Mercury Reporters
Durban – The sexual abuse of children was a horrendous crime against children, families, the church and society and needed to be dealt with by the law, South Africa’s cardinal, Wilfrid Napier, 72, said on Sunday night.
In a statement on e.tv news the cardinal, who is the Archbishop of Durban, clarified remarks he made in a BBC Radio 5 Live interview at the weekend.
He had come in for a global hammering for saying paedophilia was a mental disorder and not a crime.
The cardinal said he “at least twice” told the interviewer Stephen Nolan that he was not qualified to explain paedophilia.
“I was afforded no time to explain that the priority of pastoral concern must always be for the victim,” he said on Sunday night.
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