Pope apologizes for priest sex abuse scandal with 'sorrow and shame'

"We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them," the pope said in a letter that also condemned the abuse and the cover-up. Pope Francis begged for forgiveness in an unprecedented letter Monday and said Catholic leaders were to blame following a grand jury report last week that found more than 1,000 children were sexually abused by "predator priests" in Pennsylvania for decades. "With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives," Francis wrote. "We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them," he added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/pope-francis/pope-francis-apologizes-catholic-priest-sex-abuse-scandal-sorrow-shame-n902121