VATICAN CITY
New York Times
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
OCT. 14, 2015
VATICAN CITY — Amid a three-week conference of hundreds of bishops on family issues, Pope Francis issued an unusual and unexpected public apology on Wednesday for scandals that have bedeviled the church.
“I would like to ask for forgiveness in the name of the church for the scandals that have happened in this last period both in Rome and at the Vatican,” the pope told assembled faithful as he opened his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“I ask for your forgiveness,” he said humbly.
The pope did not say which scandals he was referring to, but even just in recent days, there has been no shortage of headline-grabbing news to distract from the Synod of Bishops, which is in the middle of a divisive, three-week discussion of issues like the church’s approach to gays and to divorced Catholics who remarry without obtaining an annulment.
Last week, in a step seemingly timed to the synod, a Vatican official publicly announced he was gay, while issuing a denunciation of homophobia within the church. He was dismissed.
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