VATICAN CITY
The Journal (Ireland)
POPE FRANCIS HAS offered a surprise public apology from the Catholic Church for a series of scandals which have shaken the city of Rome and the Vatican, from gay sex to drug use.
The Vatican has been the focus of several controversies including the coming out of a gay priest and the leaking of a controversial letter, while reports have emerged in Rome of drug-popping priests frequenting male prostitutes.
“I want, in the name of the Church, to ask forgiveness for the scandals which have recently hit Rome and the Vatican. I ask you for forgiveness,” Francis said at the start of his weekly general audience on Saint Peter’s Square.
“It is inevitable that scandals happen, but ‘Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!’” he said, quoting a passage from the Bible.
Vatican expert Joshua McElwee, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, described it as an “extraordinary step”.
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