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

Pope Leo XIV urged new archbishops to help him foster unity in a church rich in diversity. Eight of those new archbishops are from the United States, and they spoke to Catholic News Service about how they can help promote fraternity in today’s polarized world.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Christopher White about his new book, ‘Pope Leo XVI: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.’
JesuiticalJune 30, 2025
Kerry Weber, incoming president of the Catholic Media Association, and executive editor of America Magazine, speaks June 26, 2025, during the Catholic Media Conference in Phoenix. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Kerry Weber is an executive editor for America. On May 20, 2025, the Catholic Media Association announced that she was elected president,
Grace LenahanJune 30, 2025
"The whole church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between lay people and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the pope," he said during his homily at Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.