Pope Francis has condemned the “atrocities” of child sex abuse and clerical cover-ups in a letter to the world’s 1.2bn Roman Catholics.
The letter to “the People of God” calls for an end to the “culture of death” in the Church, addresses failures to deal with abuse and asks for forgiveness.
Last week a grand jury report detailed seven decades of abuse in Pennsylvania.
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The landmark investigation found more than 1,000 identifiable minors had been abused by 300 priests in the US state.
Thousands more are thought to have fallen victim. The inquiry found evidence of systematic cover-ups by the Church, with many cases now too old for prosecution.
After the report was made public, the Vatican said the Pope was on the side of victims against “preda
The Vatican says it is the first time a Pope has addressed a letter to the entire Catholic population on the topic of sex abuse.
In Monday’s 2,000-word letter he addresses the US scandal directly and acknowledges the Church’s role in failing to act sooner.
He describes the “heart-wrenching pain of these victims” that were “long ignored, kept quiet or silenced”.
The Pope’s message quotes a passage from the Bible in Corinthians that says “if one member suffers, all suffer together” and calls for the Church to come to grips with the reality of what has happened in a “comprehensive and communal way”.
“If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history.
“It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others.”
