Pope Benedict to send open letter to Irish people on church sex abuse
Benedict's move comes as new wave of scandals unfolds in Europe
The Vatican has confirmed that the Pope will be sending an open letter to the people of Ireland next week.
The news comes as a wave of new church abuse scandals has begun unraveling in Holland, Austria and Germany.
The new scandals have rocked the Church again, just weeks after it attempted to ease Irish fears about sex abuse there.
The German case is particularly worrying for the Vatican as Pope Benedict was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, and the cases under investigation run from 1964 to 1994.
In addition, Benedict spent the following two decades running the Vatican agency charged with investigations of Church abuse.
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi says that Benedict has no case to answer.
And he says that Benedict made clear his commitment to rooting out Church sex abuse with his decision to call the Irish bishops to Rome.
4 Comments
See all comments
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities
- Irishman John Downey arrested for 1982 IRA...
- Michael Flatley, star of Lord of the Dance...
- One in seven people on social welfare in...
- Did Pope Francis perform an exorcism at the...
- Violent attacks on gays in New York up 70...
- 'I expect terror attacks during G8 summit'...
- The top ten things I dislike about Irish...
- Nigerian migrants send $653 million a year...
- Top bishops clash over excommunication of...
4 Comments


Report abuse