Pope John Paul, apparently formulating his own zero tolerance policy on child abuse by priests, told US Catholic leaders yesterday that pedophilia was "a crime" that had no place in the church.
The Pope, addressing an extraordinary meeting of US Church leaders and Vatican officials, also offered an apology to the victims of priestly pedophilia and said he hoped the scandal that has rocked the church in the US would lead to "a holier priesthood."
"The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society: it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God," he said.
The powerful and specific words by the Pope may determine whether the US Church formulates policy to automatically hand over pedophile priests to civil authorities.
The US Roman Catholic Church has been hit by a series of pedophile scandals in which bishops transferred priests known to have molested children from parish to parish instead of defrocking them.
The Pope, who last week summoned US clerics to the Vatican to find a way out of the crisis, said in no uncertain terms that there would be zero tolerance for paedophiles in the priesthood.
"People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young," he added.
Church officials said before the two-day meetings began that they would be seeking Vatican guidance on whether pedophile priests can stay in the ministry or if a "one strike and you're out" rule should be applied.
The Pope also said he had been "deeply grieved by the fact that priests, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young."
He offered an apology, his first specific one directed to US Catholics.
"To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern," he said.
The Pope also appeared to attempt to cut short any possible talk of changes in the church's rule of priestly celibacy, which some have said might be open for discussion during the meetings.
The Pope said the crisis that has hit the Church went beyond pedophilia.
"The abuse of the young is a grave symptom of a crisis affecting not only the Church but society as a whole. It is a deep-seated crisis of sexual morality, even of human relationships, and its prime victims are the family and the young," he said.
He said he hoped the American crisis would lead to "a purification of the entire Catholic community."
"So much pain, so much sorrow, must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church," he said.
Among the cardinals who attended the meeting was Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, the prelate at the heart of the scandal.
There have been media reports that some cardinals in the group feel the only way out of the crisis would be for Law to resign and that the Vatican should urge him to do so.
Law, however, made a secret trip to the Vatican earlier this month and then announced he would not be stepping down.
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