VATICAN CITY
New Zealand Herald
In 2013 Pope Francis had a lot to celebrate. Not only was he named Time magazine person of the year, but was also awarded the title of Esquire’s best-dressed man.
But the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics had a very eventful 2014 too. Here are nine of the most awesome things the first non-European pope in 1200 years did: …
7) Personally asked for forgiveness for the ‘evil’ of sexually abusive priests
Pope Francis pleaded for forgiveness for the “evil” of priests who sexually abused children, and promised to take an even stronger stand than before against Catholic abuse scandals. Vatican Radio quoted him as saying: “I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that 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.”
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