ROME (ITALY)
Crux
March 8, 2019
By Claire Giangravè
On the same day that a French Cardinal became the latest churchman to be convicted for covering up clerical sexual abuse, Pope Francis on Thursday acknowledged “the pain and unbearable suffering” recent scandals have brought during a yearly Lenten speech to Roman clergy.
“Sin perverts us, and we painfully experience it when we ourselves or one of our brother priests or bishops falls in the bottomless chasm of vice, of corruption, or even worse of crime that destroys the life of others,” the pope said March 7 in off-the-cuff remarks during a closed-door meeting at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
Later in the day, the Vatican released an official transcript of the pope’s comments.
“We mustn’t lose hope, [because] the Lord is purifying his spouse, he is converting us all to him,” the pope said. “He’s making us face this challenge so we understand that without him we are dust. He is saving us from hypocrisy.”
Francis’s remarks took place after French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was found guilty by civil courts of failing to report cases of sexual abuse by clergy and given a six-month suspended sentence.
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