The Vatican said the conviction is “a painful news that, we are well aware, has shocked very many persons, not only in Australia.” At the same time, “it reaffirmed maximum respect for the Australian judicial authorities.”

He faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins on Wednesday.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo attended the Feb. 21-24 summit as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“To generalize, to look at a whole category of people is never legitimate,” said Archbishop Charles Scicluna, one of the Vatican’s point man in the fight against sex abuse. Homosexuality and heterosexuality are “human conditions,” he said, adding, “they are not something that predisposes to sin.”

“I make a heartfelt appeal for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors both sexually and in other areas, on the part of all authorities and individuals, for we are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth,” the pope said.

“The faithful do not forgive the lack of transparency because it is a new assault on the victims,” Valentina Alazraki, a Mexican television reporter, told the 190 church leaders attending the Vatican summit on the protection of minors.