VATICAN CITY
New York Times
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO APRIL 11, 2014
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said on Friday that he took personal responsibility for the harm done by priests who sexually abused children, and he pledged that the Roman Catholic Church would confront the issue unflinchingly and impose sanctions when necessary.
“The church is aware of this damage,” he said. “It is personal moral damage, carried out by men of the church, and we will not take one step backward regarding how we will deal with this problem. On the contrary, we have to be even stronger, because you cannot interfere with children.”
The remarks were made off the cuff before members of the International Catholic Child Bureau, a French nonprofit that promotes the rights and dignity of children. They were his most forceful comments to date on the church’s abuse scandal.
The two previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, condemned priests who harmed children and expressed sorrow and regret over abuse, but Francis is the first pope to take personal responsibility for the scandal. He said on Friday that he felt “compelled to personally take on all the evil” that some priests, “quite a few in number,” had committed against children.
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