Pope: Church Too Slow to Respond to Sex Abuse
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United Kingdom on Thursday for a four-day visit, a controversial yet historic state trip that has been overshadowed by the sex abuse scandals which have shaken confidence in the Roman Catholic Church.
Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was at Edinburgh airport to greet the pontiff’s plane.
Before his plane touched down, Benedict told a large group of reporters onboard that the sex abuse scandal had been a “shock” to him, reports CBS Radio News’ Sabina Castelfranco, who flew to Britain with the pope.
The German-born pontiff acknowledged the Church itself, and its leadership, was at least partly to blame for allowing the problem to go on for so long.
“The authority of the church was not sufficiently vigilant and not sufficiently quick and decided to take the necessary measures. Because of all this we are at a moment of penance, humility and renewed sincerity.”
He said the hundreds of allegations of priests abusing children were a “cause for great sadness,” and that the victims were the church’s top priority now.
“It is difficult to understand how this perversion in the priestly ministry was possible,” Benedict told the reports.