PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
BOB WARNER, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Sunday, March 23, 2014
PHILADELPHIA Archbishop Charles J. Chaput apologized Saturday to victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy and referred to “the negligence of the church’s pastors” in allowing it to occur.
“I apologize on behalf of the church,” Chaput said in his homily at a late-afternoon “Mass for Healing for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse,” attended by some 250 people.
Similar Masses have been held elsewhere for victims of clergy sex abuse, but this was the first in Philadelphia, coming at a time when the archdiocese and Chaput have been strongly criticized by some groups of victims.
Chaput’s formal public apology on behalf of the church, as opposed to past acknowledgments of wrongdoing and personal responsibility, struck at least one person who attended as something new.
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