ROME
NBC News
by CLAUDIO LAVANGA
ROME — Pope Francis has penned the preface to a new book by a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, and asked forgiveness for what he called an “absolute monstrosity” in the Church’s history.
“It is difficult for a victim of pedophilia to speak out about what they have endured and to describe the trauma that still persists many years later,” Pope Francis writes in “Father, I Forgive You” by Daniel Pittet, a Swiss man who was repeatedly raped by a Capuchin friar as a child.
“I am happy that others today can read his testimony and discover to what extent evil can enter a servant of the church. How can a priest, at the service of Christ and the Church, cause so much pain?” the pope writes.
The book will be published in Italy on Thursday but La Republica newspaper ran the pope’s preface in full on Monday.
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