Pope voices 'shame, remorse' for child abuse in Irish Church

Pope Benedict XVI today expressed in a letter "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse, saying "serious mistakes" were made by Irish bishops in responding to allegations.

"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," said the pope in a letter to Irish Catholics signed on Friday and published today.

The pope said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse "must answer" for their crimes "before properly constituted tribunals."

"Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he said, addressing himself to offenders.

The pope announced a mission to Irish dioceses rocked by sex scandals to assist "the local Church on her path to renewal," and said he is ready to meet again with victims of child abuse.

The pope also told Irish bishops "you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of Canon law for the crime of child abuse."

"On several occasions since my election to the See of Peter, I have met with victims of sexual abuse, as indeed I am ready to do in the future."

Predominantly Catholic Ireland has been shocked by three judicial reports in the last five years revealing ill-treatment, abuse and cruelty by clerics and a cover-up of their activities by church authorities.

The latest revelations, compounded by evidence of a cover-up by the church hierarchy, shook Ireland late last year.

Since then, new abuse scandals have come to light in the pope's native Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

One in Four, a leading Irish victims group said on Friday the pope should apologise to Irish sex abuse victims and admit the Catholic church abused its power and deliberately covered up the activities of paedophile priests.

One in Four wants the pope to say "clearly and unequivocally" that the church "at the highest levels" had always known about the clerical sexual abuse of children.