Pope condemns church child abuse
Abuse violates key Christian teachings, says Benedict
08 February, 16:42
(ANSA) - Vatican City, February 8 - Pope Benedict XVI
strongly condemned violence against children in all forms on
Monday but expressed particular distress over abuse within the
Catholic Church.
Addressing the annual assembly of the Vatican's Pontifical
Council for the Family, the pontiff suggested Church figures
linked to child abuse had violated some of Christianity's most
fundamental principles.
''Over the centuries the Church, following in Christ's
footsteps, has promoted the protection of the dignity and rights
of minors,'' said Benedict.The pope recalled that the teachings of Jesus advocated ''a profound respect and care'' for children. ''Unfortunately, there have been several cases in which its members have acted against this commitment and violated the rights [of children]. ''The Church censures and condemns this behaviour and will continue to do so,'' he said. In his speech, the pope also stressed the importance of a traditional family life and the need to keep families together. ''Divisions between parents, particularly separation and divorce, are not without consequences for children,'' he warned.
A family life means one ''founded on marriage between a man and a woman'', added Benedict, who has spoken out against the legalisation of same-sex unions in the past. ''Children want to be loved by a mother and a father that love one another,'' he said, adding that ''both maternal and paternal figures'' were needed to help children ''build a personality and identity''. Benedict's remarks on child abuse come a week before he is scheduled to meet with the heads of the Irish Catholic Church to discuss two reports detailing child sexual abuse by priests in Ireland. The meeting will be the second one to examine the findings of the Ryan and Murphy reports published last year, which reported decades of abuse and cover-ups in the Dublin diocese and in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages.
Following the last conference in mid-December, Benedict voiced his ''outrage'' and ''anguish'' at their contents and pledged to prevent any recurrence.
One Irish bishop resigned a week later and Benedict accepted his resignation. Three others have since presented their resignations. The Murphy report concluded that the four bishops had failed to report child sex abuse to the police from the 1960s to the 1980s.
It listed 320 people who complained of abuse between 1974 and 2004 and said a further 130 complaints against priests in Dublin had been made since May 2004. The archdiocese only started notifying civil authorities in 1995, it found.
Next week's meeting will run over two days.
On the following day, Ash Wednesday, Benedict has said he will read out a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics expressing his views on the reports.
