Text of Pope's apology for sexual abuse in Australia

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Here is the text of Pope Benedict's apology for sexual abuse of minors by clergy in Australia. The pope read the comments in a section of a sermon of a Mass in Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral on Saturday:
"Dear friends, may this celebration, in the presence of the Successor of Peter, be a moment of rededication and renewal for the whole Church in Australia!
"Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country. Indeed, I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that as their pastor I too share in their suffering.
"These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation. They have caused great pain and have damaged the Church's witness. I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice. It is an urgent priority to promote a safer and more wholesome environment, especially for young people.
"In these days marked by the celebration of World Youth Day, we are reminded of how precious a treasure has been entrusted to us in our young people, and how great a part of the Church's mission in this country has been dedicated to their education and care.
"As the Church in Australia continues, in the spirit of the Gospel, to address effectively this serious pastoral challenge, I join you in praying that this time of purification will bring about healing, reconciliation and ever greater fidelity to the moral demands of the Gospel."

Pope sorry for priests' sex abuse

Pope Benedict XVI has told Australians he is deeply sorry for the sexual abuse of children by some Catholic priests.
Speaking at a gathering of bishops during his visit to Australia, the Pope spoke of the "shame we have all felt" and called for abusers to face justice.
He said the deeds of abusive clergymen were a great betrayal of trust, which damaged the Catholic Church.
A campaign group has criticised the speech, saying the Pope should have met some victims to apologise in person.
'Misdeeds'
"I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured," the Pope said, speaking at a cathedral in Sydney.
"These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation," he said.
"Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice."
But the main support group for victims of church-related sexual abuse, Broken Rites, called the apology shallow.
The group, which says there have been 107 convictions against Catholic clergymen on sex charges in Australia, had wanted the Pope to meet some of the victims in person.
The BBC's Nick Bryant, in Sydney, says victims have complained that the Church in Australia has tried to stall compensation claims and cover up certain cases.
The Pope is visiting Australia to mark World Youth Day, which is drawing Catholics from around the world to the country. (BBC)

The Meeting With Abuse Victims

By Father James Martin
I had a prayer answered today.
Since 2002, in my prayers, meditations and discussions about the sex abuse crisis, I’ve often returned to thoughts about the healing power of ritual. Besides the necessary concrete remedies (making financial restitution to the victims, removing and disciplining abusive priests and the bishops who moved around those priests, and setting up guidelines for safer environments for children, for example), I’ve often wondered if symbolic gestures could help encourage the process of healing victims and their families.
Perhaps I am naïve, but I’ve always imagined three actions, undertaken by ministers of the church, which might help to bind up the wounds of those who have been harmed by ministers of the church.
The first would be this: bishops responsible for moving around abusive priests would wash the feet of a group of victims during the Mass at Holy Thursday, the traditional time when priests wash the feet of parishioners, in direct imitation of Jesus at the Last Supper. The second symbolic gesture would be for a bishop to prostrate himself, at the foot of the altar of his cathedral, and publicly ask his diocese for forgiveness.
Of course, without concrete steps (as described above), these rituals would be largely meaningless. But if accompanied by those steps, such gestures might possibly serve as powerful symbols of penitence, by physically embodying the intent of the church.
There is another symbolic gesture that I’ve always dreamed about: the pope himself might come to this country and meet with victims — from Boston, if possible.
That happened this afternoon, meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse when Pope Benedict XVI met privately with “five or six victims.” “They prayed together,” said Federico Lombardi, S.J., the official Vatican spokesman. “Also, each of them had their own individual time with the Holy Father,” Lombardi said. “Some were in tears.” The encounter took place in the chapel of the office of the Vatican ambassador to the United States, in Washington, shortly after the Papal Mass at Nationals Stadium.
At the meeting, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, ground zero of the clergy abuse crisis, presented the pope with a notebook containing the names of abuse victims. There were over 1,000 names.
I don’t want to overstate anything, or paint this encounter as a panacea. The sex abuse crisis is not over. Many people are still suffering, many parishes are still damaged, and much trust in the church is still lost. It takes more than a single meeting to heal a lifetime of pain. And it was a brief meeting.
But I do want to state something clearly: Pope Benedict XVI has done what many people, including me, have long prayed for. It is not the end of the crisis. It is not the cure for the crisis. But it is a profound symbol, and in the Catholic tradition a symbol is not “just a symbol.” It is something that points to a reality greater than itself, and in pointing to that reality helps to make it real.
I pray that today’s extraordinary meeting might indeed point to something greater for the victims and their families, as well as for the entire church: true and lasting healing, reconciliation and peace.

After Mass, Pope Meets Privately With Abuse Victims

WASHINGTON — Pope Benedict XVI came face to face with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church Thursday, holding a surprise meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area.

The handful of victims, now adults, gave the pope a notebook listing some 1,000 boys and girls who were abused in the Boston archdiocese alone going back several decades, a Vatican official said.
The pope himself had requested the meeting, said the official, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, which took place at the papal nuncio’s residence. The pope prayed and spoke personally with each of them, in a meeting that lasted about 25 minutes. Some wept, Father Lombardi said.

“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the pope said in his homily. “It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.”

Read More http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/us/nationalspecial2/17cnd-pope.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

The Church’s Shame, and the Priesthood

By Father James Martin
“I am deeply ashamed,” Pope Benedict XVI said this morning, briefly addressing the sexual abuse crisis in the United States. “We will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future.”
The pope was expressing the same sentiment of every priest I know, not to mention every sister, brother and layperson. American Catholics are ashamed of the crimes of some of their priests — and the actions of too many of their bishops. The reports that began in The Boston Globe in January of 2002 were shaming for the priesthood in particular.
Yet men are still entering seminaries. Why?
Over the last few days I’ve received at least a dozen calls from reporters trying to make sense of that question, and to grasp the parlous state of priestly vocations. In 2007, according to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate, 3,238 parishes (out of a total of 18,624) went without a “resident priest pastor.” That means over 3,000 “priestless” parishes. Overall, the number of priests stood at 41,449 in 2007, down from 58,632 in 1965. And the number of graduate-level seminarians is down from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,274 last year.
Why would anyone want to be a priest after the abuse crisis? Who would want to join an organization like the Catholic Church, much less represent it publicly? How could someone still hear the “call”? What will the church do without priests? A few observations:
First off, the call has little to do with hearing voices. As long as I’ve been a Jesuit (20 years) and a priest (9 years) I’ve never met anyone who decided to seek ordination because he heard a voice. Or saw a vision. Or seen anything, for that matter.
Second, the call comes from a simple attraction or desire, like any vocation. It’s not all that different from vocations in the life of the layperson. Two people may discover their vocation to the married life by being attracted to one another. A doctor may decide to become a doctor because he finds that life appealing. So in the life of a young man drawn to the priesthood
At the most basic level a “call” manifests itself as a simple attraction. In these ways God, I believe, “calls” people to fulfill their vocations. Those attractions are still operative in the lives of men who see that the vast majority of priests are living healthy and productive lives. Believe me, seminarians, as well as men in religious orders preparing for ordination, are fully aware, and “deeply ashamed” of the clergy abuse scandals. But they are also aware of the great satisfaction that the vast majority of priests report in their working lives.
Third, I’m not as crestfallen as some about “declining vocations.” Sure, I want the Mass to be celebrated in as many places as possible, and for that we need many more priests. (Currently that’s restricted to celibate unmarried men.) But declining seminary rosters may also mean more opportunities for the laity to exercise their roles in leadership, something that the Second Vatican Council championed.
Fourth, there’s not much evidence that the sexual abuse crisis has affected priestly vocations. The number of seminarians is declining, but that decline does not seem to have accelerated much since 2002. Perhaps that will change. But for now God is still “calling” men to seminary life, even after the devastating and deeply shaming sexual abuse crisis. And God will presumably continue to do so, for reasons that are as personal and unique as the men who answer that call.

Benedict Addresses the Bishops on Abuse

“Sometimes very badly handled,” said Pope Benedict XVI to his bishops, referring to the handling of the sexual abuse crisis in this country. In tonight’s landmark speech to the U.S. bishops, following a vespers service at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Benedict offered a lengthy analysis of the clergy abuse crisis that has devastated the Catholic Church. The abuse has caused “deep shame.” Bishops must “attach priority by showing compassion and care to the victims…those so seriously wronged.”
Even veteran Vaticanologists were surprised that Benedict chose to address the problem at such length, and in a public setting — before the assembled bishops and cardinals, and before the television cameras. In essence, before the world. His earlier comments, en route from Rome, indicated that he would address the issue, but few thought he would tackle the question so directly. Or so soon. Or so publicly.
Remember that the pope could easily have chosen two other options: speaking with the bishops privately about the matter, or not at all.
But was it enough?
To answer that question adequately you will have to ask a victim of clergy abuse, or a family member, and many of them will weigh in with their reactions to the pope’s words.
For me, however, his words were a sign that the pope is intent on tackling the subject head on, reminding the bishops not only of the “scale and gravity” of the problem but also of their responsibility to “bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust,” that is, the wounds caused by abusive priests and the bishops who moved them from parish to parish.
Some of Benedict’s message may be vitiated, for some, by his placement of the abuse crisis in a “wider context” of a permissive society. (That is, some may interpret the pope as saying that the abuse was largely the result of a morally lax and sexually permissive society, when most Catholics believe it was more a result of shocking negligence on the part of some bishops.) Some might also believe that tonight’s talk should have focused more on the victims, rather than on the innocent priests (that is, the majority, who were not abusers), who were compared to Christ suffering through his Passion. Whatever innocent priests have suffered pales in comparison to what victims and their families have undergone.
But the pope’s address was notable as much for what it did not say, as for what it said. Think about what he did not say, in contrast to what some officials have said in the past.
He did not blame it on the media, as some have. He did not blame it on homosexuality, as some have. (Earlier, on the plane from Rome he explicitly, and rightly, distinguished between homosexuality and pedophilia.) He did not speak largely in somewhat abstract theological terms, as Pope John Paul II did, who called the crisis a reflection of the mysterium iniquitatis, the mystery of evil. (To be fair, John Paul, who was aged and severely ailing during the crisis, gathered together the American cardinals and spoke out forcefully against keeping abusive priests in ministry.) Finally, Benedict did not simply advert to the crisis in vague terms or speak about the crimes obliquely, but called it by its rightful name: the source of the church’s shame was the “sexual abuse of minors.” In the Gospels, when Jesus exorcised a demon named “Legion,” one of the first things he did was to name the demon. (Father James Martin)