VATICAN CITY
CBS News
August 20, 2018
By Jan Crawford
Pope Francis became the first pope to directly write to the world’s Catholics about the church’s sexual abuse scandal. In a letter published Monday, the pope said the church had abandoned its children, begged victims for forgiveness and said the church must spare no effort to root out predator priests.
The letter comes less than a week after revelations of decades of abuse in Pennsylvania and allegations that the current archbishop of Washington, D.C., was involved in a coverup.
“We showed no care for the little ones,” the pope wrote. “We abandoned them.”
Francis, however, stopped short of offering concrete steps to remove abusive priests or sanction those who took part in cover-ups.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., was accused in the report of shielding predator priests. As bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years, he oversaw 32 of of the 99 accused. Wuerl spoke with CBS News the night before the report was released.
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