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	Pope Takes on Sex Scandal, Priest Shortage in Speech to Bishops By Mark Mueller The Star-Ledger April 16, 2008 http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/pope_takes_on_sex_scandals_pri.html WASHINGTON - After two joyful stints on the popemobile and a visit to the White Houset, Pope Benedict XVI's 81st birthday took a mostly serious turn this evening when he delivered a wide-ranging speech to American bishops that touched on religious fervor, Catholics who don't follow church doctrine, the clergy sex scandal and the shortage of priests. "America is...a land of great faith," Benedict said at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, repeating what has been a common theme thus far in his first trip to the U.S. as pope. "Your people are remarkable for their religious fervor and they take pride in belonging to a worshipping community. "They have confidence in God, and they do not hesitate to bring moral arguments rooted in biblical faith into their public discourse." The pope, introduced by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, decreed the high numbers of single American Catholics who choose to live together before - or instead of - getting married, urging the 300 bishops there to do a better job teaching Catholic morality on marriage. "It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the transmission of life," he said. Benedict spoke in more detail than he has before about the clergy sex abuse crisis. "Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors. Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior." He repeated one bishop's statement that the sex scandal had been "sometimes very badly handled" by the church hierarchy. "Now that the scale and gravity of the problem is more clearly understood," he said, "you have been able to adopt more focused remedial and disciplinary measures and to promote a safe environment that gives greater protection to young people." He also touched on what is probably the most serious problem facing the American Catholic Church - a shortage of priests. "Let us be quite frank. The ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a local church," he said. "There is no room for complacency in this regard." Afterward, as Benedict left the shrine, the bishops serenaded him with "Happy Birthday." Read the prepared text of Pope Benedict's address, which he stuck to with only minor diversions.
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