ROME
International Business Times
By Ananya Roy
Updated April 15, 2017
Expressing shame over the failures of the Church and humanity in protecting the dignity and lives of innocent people, Pope Francis called for the almighty’s forgiveness during his Good Friday speech at Rome’s Colosseum.
Wearing a plain white coat, he presided over the traditional evening Way of the Cross procession and later addressed the 20,000 people gathered at the place amid extremely tight security.
The pontiff said that their eyes were “lowered in shame” and hearts were “full of hope” because of “all those images of devastation, destruction, shipwrecks, that have become routine in our lives”. He specifically mentioned the sexual abuse allegations against several Catholic Church clergymen and said that the shame was also “for all those times that we bishops, priests and other clergy scandalised” the church.
Referring to the migrant crisis in Europe, he said that hundreds of thousands of displaced people have endured hardships at the hands of human traffickers in attempts to reach European countries, but these nations have increasingly been rejecting their asylum pleas. He expressed grief over the loss of hundreds of lives lost while sailing to Europe through risky sea routes.
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