Pope: No institution has done more to tackle sexual abuse

By John Alexander O'dowd
Newstalk
March 5, 2014

http://www.newstalk.ie/Pope:-No-institution-has-done-more-to-tackle-sexual-abuse

The Pope has defended the Catholic Church's record on tackling the sexual abuse of children by priests, saying "no-one else has done more" to root out paedophilia.

Last month, the United Nations denounced the Vatican for allowing child abuse to be covered up. The UN accused the church of preserving its own reputation and the reputation of abusers over the protection of child victims.

In an interview with an Italian daily, 'Il Corriere della Sera' published this morning, Pope Francis says statistics show the great majority of abuses are carried out in family or neighbourhood environments.

And he praised his predecessor Benedict the 16th for being the first pope to apologise to abuse victims.

He also sympathised with his victims saying, "The cases of abuse are terrible because they leave very deep wounds. The Church has done so much on this road. Perhaps most of all. The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have moved with transparency and accountability. Nobody has done more. Yet the Church is the only one to be attacked."

Paddy Agnew, Rome Correspondent for the Irish Times feels that Pope Francis is being quite defensive: