-
Source: Reuters
Pope Benedict, who meets Irish bishops next week over a
paedophilia scandal involving priests, said the Roman Catholic
Church must keep its guard up against those who violate the rights
of children.
Addressing participants of a Vatican conference on protecting
childhood, Benedict acknowledged that unfortunately, in a number of
cases, some of its (the Church) members acted in contrast to this
commitment.
Benedict will meet bishops from Irish dioceses to discuss the
Murphy Commission Report, a damning indictment of child sex abuse
by priests in Irealand which has already led to the resignation of
two Irish bishops.
Released in late November, the government report said Church
leaders in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland had covered up
widespread abuse of children by priests for 30 years.
In his address, Benedict said Jesus' harsh words in the Bible about
those who harm children should commit everyone to never lowering
the level of respect and love.
SNAP, a US-based group of people molested by priests as children,
said in a statement the pope's words were self-serving because he
should speak out more forcefully about the complicity of
bishops.
The Murphy Report said bishops had obsessively hidden child abuse
in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, and operated a policy
of don't ask, don't tell.
After the release of the report the Vatican and the Irish Church
came under intense criticism for not responding earlier to its
findings.
The Vatican later summoned several leaders of the Irish Catholic
Church to meetings in Rome, where he expressed outrage, betrayal
and shame over the abuse.
One of the topics of next week's meeting is expected to be a letter
the pope will write to the Irish people about the crisis and a plan
for action - the first time a pope will devote a document solely to
the clergy's abuse of children.
The Murphy report said all Dublin archbishops 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.
The pope has strongly condemned priestly sexual abuse during his
trips to two countries hard hit by widespread scandals - the United
States and Australia.
But critics, such as victims groups, have said the Vatican and the
Church had not gone far enough in handing over suspected abusers to
civil justice.
One of the worst sexual abuse scandal occurred in the United
States, where Church leaders were discovered to have transferred
known paedophile priests from parish to parish.
After the scandal in the United States, where Boston Cardinal
Bernard was forced to resign in 2002, procedures to remove American
paedophile priests from the active ministry were streamlined.
Seven American dioceses have filed for bankruptcy protection in the
wake of thousands of sex abuse claims against priests.
The Los Angeles archdiocese paid $870 million to 500 abuse victims
in 2007 in the largest compensation deal of its kind.
