International   

Wounds run deep: Pope

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI said on Saturday the church must urgently rebuild confidence and trust damaged by clerical sex abuse scandals. The Pope made the remarks to a group of visiting bishops from Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation where the church has been damaged by sex abuse scandals over the past decade. ``In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors,'' he told the bishops. ``These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric. The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged.'' He told the bishops that as they continue to deal with the problem, ``it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take steps to prevent it from occurring again." — AP

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

LTTE to blame for violence: Colombo
BNP faces backlash
Cheney slammed over torture
Europe falling far short of targets
Security withdrawn for Hasina
Nadine Gordimer assaulted
Dylan award, all of £60,000
Frozen eggs wait for Mr. Right
Probe into Afghan civilian casualties
Wounds run deep: Pope
Scattered violence
Pakistan hopes talks will be productive
Deora to resume energy dialogue
Now coming to India: a Muslim woman comic

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu