UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
By Jeremy Bowen
BBC Middle East editor
On the plane back to Rome after his Middle East tour, Pope Francis said that the sexual abuse of children by priests was as bad as performing a satanic mass.
Scandals involving priests abusing children sexually and in other ways have caused enormous damage to Catholicism.
Secular people might say that paedophilia is actually much worse than a satanic rite.
But for a pope to compare crimes carried out by Catholic priests to worshipping the devil counts as strong language.
The Pope is saying what many Catholics who have been horrified by repeated child sex abuse scandals want to hear.
But he will have to follow his words with actions if he wants to stop scandals doing any more damage to the Church.
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.