Published Tuesday, 16 February 2010
At the end of an unprecedented two-day Vatican summit with Irish Bishops, the Pontiff branded the sexual abuse of children and young people a "heinous crime and a grave sin."
The 24 senior clergy were summoned over the past mishandling of child abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic church in Ireland.
Victims group 'One in Four' said they are disappointed that the Pope has offered no explanation or apology for the failure of the Vatican to cooperate with the Murphy Commission into the abuse of children in Dublin.
"It is deeply insulting to survivors to suggest that they were abused due to failures of faith, rather than because sex offending priests were moved from parish to parish, and those in authority looked away while further children were sexually abused," said Executive Director Maeve Lewis.
The group said the Vatican has accepted no responsibility for its role in facilitating the sexual abuse of children, referring only to the Irish church, and only vague declarations of intent for the future are included.
'Failings'
In a statement, the Vatican said: "For his part, the Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image.
"While realising that the current painful situation will not be resolved quickly, he challenged the Bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve, and to face the present crisis with honesty and courage."
The Vatican said the senior clergy spoke frankly of the sense of pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame expressed by those who had been abused and the feeling of outrage reflected by the religious.
Later the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, and the Bishops held a press conference in Rome.
"There have been failings, of course, in our leadership", Cardinal Brady admitted.
"The only way we will regain that credibility will be through humiliation. This is what we are setting out to do. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. It's a time of penance.
"This is not an Irish problem. It's not an Anglophone problem. It's not a problem of the Catholic Church but it's a great problem and at the centre of it all must be the welfare of victims."
Rome also revealed the Irish Bishops had an opportunity to examine and discuss a draft of the Pastoral Letter which the Pope has penned to the Catholics of Ireland and which will be issued during Lent.
The Bishops told Rome that while errors of judgment and omissions stood at the heart of the crisis in the Irish church, significant measures have been taken to ensure the safety of children and young people.
In May last year the Ryan Report revealed the Catholic Church and Irish Government covered up almost four decades of sexual abuse and beatings by priests and nuns on thousands of children in state care.
Six months later the State-ordered Murphy Report unveiled a catalogue of child abuse and subsequent cover-ups over three decades by the Catholic hierarchy in Dublin.
It detailed allegations against a sample 46 priests who served in Dublin between 1975 to 2004 and found several bishops, some still serving, mishandled complaints against priests.
Cardinal Brady and Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, have repeatedly apologised to survivors of abuse and the people of Ireland for the subsequent cover up.