Pope Benedict XVI offered a historic full apology for child sex abuse by predatory Australian priests yesterday, saying he was “deeply sorry” and calling for those guilty of the “evil” to be punished.
The Pope apologized before leading more than 200,000 Catholic pilgrims in a candlelit vigil a day ahead of an even bigger papal mass to cap off a week of Catholic World Youth Day celebrations here.
During a mass for local clergy, the Pope strayed from a prepared speech to express his shame and make his first direct and explicit apology to victims of some corrupt clergymen in Australia.
“I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering,” he said in a line absent from the prepared text of his homily circulated to journalists.
His remarks to Australian bishops, seminarians and novices in Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral were his strongest yet in confronting the scourge that has rocked the Catholic church globally.
“Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame that we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious [order members] in this country,” he said.
The World Youth Day festivities have been partly overshadowed by pressure from victims for a full apology amid claims the church had not adequately addressed the issue over recent years.
But groups representing Australian victims said the Pope’s words alone were not enough and that he should have apologized in front of sex abuse victims, not priests.
“Sorry may be a start but we want to see a lot more,” spokeswoman for the victims’ group Broken Rites Chris MacIsaac said, adding that she wanted victims to be treated fairly and not to be “re-abused by church authorities.”
Helen Last from the clergy sexual abuse advocacy group In Good Faith and Associates, said the Pope’s words would not ease decades of victims’ suffering.
“It is just a drop in a bucket — a bucket full of tears that all of us who work with victims have been sitting with for 25 to 30 years in Australia,” she said. “It’s not really a hands-on response is it? It’s just a few words from the CEO.”
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