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Source: Reuters -
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A top Vatican official told Irish bishops in Rome for talks with
Pope Benedict on the Irish Church's vast paedophilia scandal that
clergy who had sinned must admit blame for abominable acts.
The message came in the sermon of a mass in St Peter's Basilica
shortly before the bishops started two days of crisis talks with
the pope to formulate a response to the revelations of abuse by
clergy that have shaken devoutly Catholic Ireland.
"Yes, storms spark fear, even those that rock the boat of the
church because of the sins of its members," Vatican Secretary of
State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, number two in the Vatican
hierarchy, told the bishops.
Bertone said trials within the church are naturally harder and more
humiliating particularly when men of the church were involved in
such particularly abominable acts.
The meetings, the first of their kind at the Vatican in eight
years, will discuss a plan of action and could lead to more
prelates resigning in a shake-up of the Irish church hierarchy.
Four have already quit.
Benedict, the 24 Irish bishops and top Vatican officials will hold
three sessions in response to outrage in Ireland over the Murphy
Commission Report, a damning indictment of child sex abuse by
priests.
Bertone said God's mercy could pull one out of the deepest abyss
but only if the sinner recognises his blame in full
truth.
Church "obsessively" hid abuse
The report, published in November, said the church in Ireland had
obsessively concealed child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from
1975 to 2004, and operated a policy of don't ask, don't tell.
It said all Dublin bishops in charge during the period under study
had been aware of some complaints, but the archdiocese had been
more preoccupied with protecting the reputation of the church than
safeguarding children.
Four bishops have offered their resignations and the pope has so
far accepted one.
Victims' group One in Four called on other bishops throughout
Ireland who had engaged in a culture of cover-up to step
down.
The bishops handed the pope a letter from another victims' group,
the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, which asked him to investigate
how Christ's teaching had been so flagrantly abrogated over many
decades.
It urged him to help bring perpetrators of abuse or its cover-up to
civil justice and to set up a commission to examine all aspects of
the historical misconduct of Irish religious orders and priests who
betrayed their sacred vows.
Victims' groups said they would seek monetary compensation, which
could lead to a financial crisis for the Irish Church.
In the US Church, hit by a similar scandal in 2002, seven dioceses
have filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of thousands of
sex abuse claims against priests.
The Vatican said in December the pope would write to the Irish
people about the crisis - the first time a pontiff will have
devoted a document solely to clergy's abuse of children.
The pope has strongly condemned such abuse during his trips to two
countries hard hit by scandals - the United States and
Australia.
In December, he expressed his outrage, betrayal and shame over
the Irish case.
But critics say the Vatican and the church have not gone far enough
in handing over suspected abusers to civil justice.
The current archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who took over
after the period covered by the report, said he expected a very
significant reorganisation of the Irish church.
The church's prominent role in Irish life was one of the reasons
abuses were allowed to go unchecked, the report said.
One priest admitted abusing more than 100 children.
Another said he had abused children every two weeks for over 25 years.
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