ROME
Christian Today
James Macintyre 17 August 2017
Pope Francis has branded the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests an ‘absolute monstrosity’ and pledged action against the perpetrators as well as bishops and cardinals who have protected them.
The Pope made the comments in the foreword of a new book entitled Father, I Forgive You: Abused But Not Broken, written by a Swiss man, Daniel Pittet, who was first raped by a priest when he was eight years old.
Pope Francis, whose repeated promises of zero tolerance have been criticised by victims who say the Vatican needs to do much more, called sexual abuse ‘an absolute monstrosity, a terrible sin that contradicts everything that the Church teaches’.
The Pope’s foreword was published on Wednesday by the German daily newspaper Bild.
Francis said that the fate of abused children, especially those who had taken their own lives, weighed on his soul.
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