The Irish bishops have been meeting with the Pope for their ad limina visits this week.
The Irish church has, of course, been wrenched from its pedestal in Irish culture over the past 3 decades, not just because of the increasingly secularization of Irish society, but because of the impact of sexual abuse claims, as well as the accusations of physical and emotional abuse by religious men and women in their various institutions.
Pope Benedict reportedly let his views be known:
Pope Benedict, in the strongest language he has ever used in relation to clerical child sex abuse, has expressed his own "personal anguish and horror" at what happened in the Ferns diocese over a 40-year period from the early 1960s onwards.
He said the "incomprehensible behaviour" of some clergy in Ferns had "devastated human lives and profoundly betrayed the trust of children, young people, their families, parish communities and the entire diocesan family".
Pope Benedict’s comments were made public last night by the director of the diocese of Ferns communications office, Fr John Carroll. The pope was speaking during a private audience at the Vatican for the new Bishop of Ferns, Most Rev Denis Brennan, who is accompanying the other Irish Catholic bishops on an ad limina visit to Rome.
The 271-page report of the Ferns inquiry, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Murphy, was published a year ago. It identified more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse made between 1962 and 2002 against 26 priests operating under the aegis of the diocese.
It severely criticised the way complaints against priests had been handled by the church authorities, particularly by the former bishops of Ferns, Donal Herlihy and Brendan Comiskey.
Yesterday was the first time Pope Benedict had commented on the Ferns inquiry report.
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