VATICAN CITY
Newstalk
John Alexander O’Dowd
The Pope has defended the Catholic Church’s record on tackling the sexual abuse of children by priests, saying “no-one else has done more” to root out paedophilia.
Last month, the United Nations denounced the Vatican for allowing child abuse to be covered up. The UN accused the church of preserving its own reputation and the reputation of abusers over the protection of child victims.
In an interview with an Italian daily, ‘Il Corriere della Sera’ published this morning, Pope Francis says statistics show the great majority of abuses are carried out in family or neighbourhood environments.
And he praised his predecessor Benedict the 16th for being the first pope to apologise to abuse victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.