VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
April 11, 2014

ROME — Pope Francis on Friday made his first public plea for forgiveness on behalf of priests who have abused children.

“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests — quite a few in number, [although] obviously not compared to the number of all priests — to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,” the pope said in a strongly worded, unscripted speech.

The apology marked a change of tone by the pope, who has been criticized for paying scant attention to the clerical sex-abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church. Only last month Francis angered many victims groups by lashing back at a United Nations panel that accused senior prelates of covering up for abusive priests.

But in his meeting Friday at the…