Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
March 01, 2010

At the end of a two-day summit meeting with Irish bishops about the scandal of sexual abuse in Ireland, the Vatican said in a statement on Feb. 16 that “errors of judgment and omissions” were at the heart of the crisis. It said church leaders recognized the sense of “pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame” that those errors have provoked among many Irish Catholics. “All those present recognized that this grave crisis has led to a breakdown in trust in the church’s leadership and has damaged her witness to the Gospel and its moral teaching,” the statement said. Pope Benedict XVI said sexual abuse by priests was a “heinous crime” and a grave sin “that offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image,” and he urged Irish bishops to act courageously to repair their failures to deal properly with such cases. The pope convened the bishops in response to the public outrage following an independent report that faulted the church for its handling of 325 claims of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin in the years 1975 to 2004.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

“Inside the Vatican” host Colleen Dulle shares how her visit to Argentina gave her a deeper understanding into Francis’ emphasis on “being amongst the people” and his belief that “you can’t do theology behind a desk.”
Inside the VaticanApril 25, 2024
Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor on Sept. 22, 2023. (OSV news photo/Irakli Gedenidze, Reuters)
Christians who have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for 2,000 years are being driven out by Azerbaijan. Will world leaders act?
Kevin ClarkeApril 25, 2024
The problem is not that TikTok users feel disappointed about the potential loss of an entertaining social platform; it is that many young people see a ban on TikTok as the end of, or at least a major disruption to, their social life. 
Brigid McCabeApril 25, 2024
The actor Jeremy Strong sitting at a desk reading a book by candlelight in a theatrical production of the play Enemy of the People
Two new Broadway productions cast these two towering figures in sharp relief.
Rob Weinert-KendtApril 25, 2024