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	Pope Benedict XVI Apologises to Ireland's Victims of Sex Abuse by Priests By Nick Squires Telegraph March 20, 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7486984/Pope-Benedict-XVI-apologises-to-Irelands-victims-of-sex-abuse-by-priests.html Pope Benedict XVI has issued a formal apology to the Irish victims of decades of sex abuse by Catholic priests. In the first public document ever issued by the Vatican on the subject of sex abuse, the Pope said: "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. "I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity violated. "We are all scandalised by the sins and failures of some of the Church's members." Decades of sex abuse by priests and other clergy had shattered faith in the church, the German-born Pope said in a seven-page letter due to be read out in churches across Ireland on Sunday. "I know some of you find it difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred." The Pope, whose former archdioscese in Munich has also been caught up in the scandal, said he shared in the "dismay and sense of betrayal" of many Catholics. He said: "Serious sins committed against defenceless children" had opened up a "grievous wound". The letter was addressed specifically to Irish Catholics and made no mention of other countries which have been swept up in the scandal in the last two months. In the past year, cases of abuse have emerged from around the world, with priests in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico and even in the Pope's former diocese in Germany being accused of mistreating children. The Pope did not, as victims' abuse group in Ireland have called for, make it clear that priests or bishops who learn of sex abuse cases should report them to police. He said decades of cover-ups by the Church were due to "a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal." He said he had met victims of sex abuse from various countries in the past and was prepared to do so again. He condemned bishops who had colluded in the concealment of sex abuse cases, but only in the vaguest terms, saying that "grave errors of judgement were made and failures of leadership occurred". He announced that he would send a team of Vatican officials, known as an Apostolic Visitation, to certain dioceses in Ireland in the near future. He called for "concrete initiatives" to address the situation, but they amounted to little more than prayers, fastings and Bible readings. The letter was met with disappointment by survivors of abuse in Ireland. "We feel the letter falls far short of addressing the concerns of the victims," said Maeve Lewis, executive director of victims group One in Four. She said the pope's letter focused too narrowly on lower-ranked Irish priests without recognising the responsibility of the Vatican. The letter follows calls from leading Catholic figures for the Pope to accept responsibility for the widespread cover-up of sex abuse cases that has rocked the Church over recent weeks. Hundreds of victims from around the world have come forward over recent weeks with stories that date back decades and had previously gone unreported. Pope Benedict has been criticised for presiding over a culture of secrecy in his time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican department that deals with investigating allegations made against priests. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the German Justice minister, blamed the Pope for encouraging a "wall of silence" over sex abuse. In 2001, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, signed an official Vatican document telling bishops to keep secret the details of priestly misbehaviour that they reported to Rome. The crisis has deepened in recent weeks as hundreds more victims have come forward. Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of all Ireland, has said that he will consider his own position following a series of damaging revelations. "Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce his own mea culpa," said the Rev Hans Kung, the dissident Swiss theologian.
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