VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post
The Catholic Church was slammed at the U.N. on Thursday about how they have historically handled cases of sex abuse by priests, as a committee investigated their adherence to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires all signatories “to take all appropriate measures to keep children from harm.”
Pope Francis has addressed the sexual abuse issue as part of his Vatican reforms with the creation of a commission on abuse, and on Thursday morning he also denounced the problem in a blistering homily that spoke of the scandal and shame of the church.
Vatican Radio reported that he said:
But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know…We know where they are! Scandals, some who charged a lot of money…. The shame of the Church!
But are we all ashamed of those scandals, of those failings of priests, bishops, laity? Where was the Word of God in those scandals; where was the Word of God in those men and in those women? They did not have a relationship with God! They had a position in the Church, a position of power, even of comfort. But the Word of God, no! ‘But, I wear a medal,’ ‘I carry the Cross ‘ … Yes, just as those bore the Ark!
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