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| Pope Francis Asks for Forgiveness for Priests Who Molested Children
Irish Mirror
April 10, 2014
http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/pope-francis-asks-forgiveness-priests-3400917
Pope Francis today asked for forgiveness for priests who molested children in some of his strongest words ever on the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis.
"I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children," he told members of a children's' rights group according to Vatican Radio.
He added: "The Church is aware of this damage.
"It is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the Church and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem and the sanctions that must be imposed.
"On the contrary, I think we must be even stronger. You don't play around with the lives of children."
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The inauguration mass of Pope Francis
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The Catholic Church's handling of abuse allegations has long been a controversial topic with scandals such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries where girls were used as forced labour.
In recent years, thousands of abuse claims, dating back several decades have been revealed.
Pope Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI issued an apology for abuses.
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