Catholic
leaders across Australia have welcomed a letter from the Pope saying the
church “weeps bitterly” over the sexual abuse of children by priests,
ahead of a final royal commission investigation into how these crimes
could occur.
In what represents
one of the most frank admissions of institutional failure by any
pontiff, Pope Francis used the letter to say: “We … weep for this sin.
The sin of what happened, the sin of failing to help, the sin of
covering up and denial, the sin of abuse of power.”
The
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
will hold a final, three-week hearing next month attempting to establish
how widespread this abuse is and what cultural issues allowed it to
occur.