Pope Francis expresses ‘shame’ over French Church sex abuse scandal

Pope Francis expresses ‘shame’ over French Church sex abuse scandal

Pope Francis on Wednesday expressed his personal shame and that of the Church at the sexual abuse of children by French Catholic clergy, after the scale of the problem was laid bare in a devastating report, France24 reports. 

"I wish to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma they have suffered," he said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.

"And also my shame, our shame, my shame for the inability of the Church for too long to put them at the centre of its concerns.

"I pray and we all pray together -- to you Lord the glory, to us the shame. This is the time for shame."

An independent commission on Tuesday revealed that French Catholic clergy sexually abused around 216,000 minors over seven decades since 1950, a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up by a "veil of silence".

The commission's two-and-a-half-year inquiry and 2,500-page report prompted outrage as the Catholic Church in France and around the world faces a growing number of abuse claims and prosecutions.

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