Pope Francis bluntly criticized Catholic bishops in the US for their approach to the church's sexual abuse crisis, saying that their finger-pointing, abuses of power and "playing the victim or the scold" have undermined the church's credibility.
"The church's credibility has been seriously undercut and diminished by these sins and crimes," the Pope said of the abuse of children by Catholic clergy, "but even more by the efforts made to deny or conceal them."
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/03/europe/pope-bishops-letter/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/03/europe/pope-bishops-letter/index.html