ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday (November 26) expressed sympathy for victims of clerical sexual abuse and said the Catholic Church had made efforts to investigate the issue.
The Church has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse scandals and allegations of cover-up in Europe and the United States in recent years.
Addressing a delegation of visiting U.S. bishops on Saturday, the pontiff referred back to his visit to the United States in April 2008, when he met victims of abuse by priests.
"Our meetings are the first since my 2008 pastoral visit to your country, which was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades. I wish to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made both to ensure the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise," he said.
According to a recent study, more than 10,600 people have reported being molested by U.S. priests since 1950 and the U.S. church has paid two billion USD in settlements to victims since 1992, bankrupting a handful of dioceses.
Benedict said sexual abuse was an issue both the Church and wider society had to deal with.
"It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognise the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," he told the visiting delegation.
The Vatican has for years been struggling to control the damage that sexual abuse scandals have done to the Church's image. The scandal has led to the resignation of bishops in several countries.
Last year, Benedict begged forgiveness from God and from abuse victims, and said the Church would do everything in its power to ensure that it never happened again.
The Vatican sent a letter to bishops around the world last May to urge them to make the rooting out of child sexual abuse by priests a global priority.
