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Pope says church must do penance for abuse cases
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Pope says church must do penance for abuse cases
VATICAN CITY
Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:15am EDT
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A gust of wind blows Pope Benedict XVI's mantle during the weekly Wednesday general audience in St. Peter square at the Vatican April 14, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday the sexual abuse scandal shaking Roman Catholicism showed the Church needed to do penance for its sins, in a rare public reference by the pope to pedophilia in the priesthood.
World
"Now, under attack from the world which talks to us of our sins, we can see that being able to do penance is a grace and we see how necessary it is to do penance and thus recognize what is wrong in our lives," the said pope at a mass in the Vatican.
This involved "opening oneself up to forgiveness, preparing oneself for forgiveness, allowing oneself to be transformed," said the pope, whose last public utterance on the scandal was his letter to the Irish people, made public on March 20.
Benedict's focus on penance contrasts to senior churchmen's recent emphasis on defending the Church and the pope from what they portray as an campaign orchestrated by hostile news media.
The pope's personal preacher went as far as to compare the abuse scandal to anti-Semitism, drawing sharp criticism from some Jews and from victims of abuse by priests.
Pope Benedict also hit back at critics of the Church, portraying them as in the thrall of a conformist "dictatorship."
"Conformism which makes it obligatory to think and act like everyone else, and the subtle -- or not so subtle -- aggression toward the Church demonstrate how this conformism can really be a true dictatorship," said the pope.
CHURCH DENIES COVER-UP
Accusations that the Church mishandled and even covered up sexual abuse of children by priests in the United States, Ireland, Germany, Italy and elsewhere, have landed on Benedict's own doorstep, especially because in his previous job at the Vatican he was in charge of disciplining wayward priests.
The Vatican has denied any cover-up over the abuse of 200 deaf American boys by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from 1950 to 1974. The New York Times reported that the Vatican and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, were warned about Murphy but he was not defrocked.
The Vatican has also said the pope, when he was Archbishop of Munich, was not aware that a German priest who underwent therapy after sexually abusing children was later allowed to return to the ministry. The priest later abused children again.
With new cases surfacing almost daily, the Church has said the guilt of individuals who committed crimes, however heinous, cannot be shifted to the pope or the entire Church.
The 82-year-old pope did not speak out about the accusations in recent Easter Week ceremonies and even his latest comments refer only to the Church's unspecified "sins," without referring to the abuse scandals directly.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Jon Boyle)
World
Comments
See All Comments (4) | Post Comment
Apr 15, 2010 10:23am EDT
What a joke, and a sick one at that! The Pope should be in jail along with the others in the church. The assets of the church should be taken by the World Court and given to the people that the have done wrong to. The only word that sums it up is ” PATHETIC”.
annikin
Report As Abusive
Apr 15, 2010 10:29am EDT
Amen to that!
Titfortats09
Report As Abusive
Apr 15, 2010 10:31am EDT
We’re dictators because of their crimes???
Anork
Report As Abusive
Apr 15, 2010 10:33am EDT
penance for its sins?????..They should be doing some serious time in prison….Starting with 25+ years for the perpetrator and the pope should be on trial for obstruction of justice….penance my behind…
RayGunsmess
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