Pope Francis apologised
on behalf of the Catholic Church for recent scandals in the
Vatican and in Rome at his general audience on Wednesday.
"Jesus is realistic and it is inevitable that scandals
occur," the pope said.
"Woe to the world because of scandals. For if must needs
be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom
the scandal cometh.
"Before I start this catechism, I'd like to ask you for
forgiveness, in the name of the Church, for the scandals that
have occurred both in Rome and in the Vatican in recent times".
The pope did not specify which scandals he was referring
to.
Vatican spokesman father Federico Lombardi said he was
referring to acts by "men of the Church" and, therefore, not to
the expenses furore that recently led Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino
to quit or other problems to afflict the administration of the
Italian capital.
The papacy of Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI, was
badly hit by cases of sexual abuse of children by clergymen,
financial scandals at the Vatican and the so-called VatiLeaks
case regarding to the leaking of confidential Church documents,
which saw Benedict's butler convicted.
Months after Francis was elected head of the world's 1.2
billion Catholics, a senior Vatican prelate arrested for trying
to illegally smuggle cash into Italy.
More recently, the Vatican defrocked former papal nuncio
to the Dominican Republic and former archbishop Jozef Wesolowski
for child abuse before he died this year.
The day before the start of this month's synod on the
family, Polish priest and theologian Krzysztof Charamsa
announced that he was in a relationship with a man and said he
had come out to challenge the Church's "backwards" attitude to
homosexuality.
In recent weeks the Church in Rome has been rocked by the
case of clergymen belonging to the Barefoot Carmelites order
being transferred from a parish following reports of them being
linked to a gay prostitution ring.
During Wednesday's audience, the Argentine pontiff said
said that defence of the family is protection of humanity.
"Only if we look at children with the eyes of Jesus can we
understand how in defending the family, we're protecting
humanity," Francis said.
Francis appealed to the faithful to pray for the Synod on
the Family so that bishops will make "the decisions that best
serve the family".
He also said that mothers and fathers transmit a "spark of
God" to their children.
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