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SYDNEY: Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday apologised explicitly for the first time to victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, expressing his shame and calling for perpetrators of the "evil" to be brought to justice.
The pope strayed from his prepared speech to add a direct and full apology for sex abuse in the Australian church, using some of his strongest language yet on the scourge that has rocked the Catholic Church globally.
"Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country," he said at a mass for Australian clergy in Sydney.
"Indeed I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering," he told the bishops, seminarians and novices.
The pope is leading around 200,000 pilgrims at World Youth Day in Australia that has been intermittently overshadowed by victims' claims the church had not adequately addressed the issue.
He called for compensation for the victims of priestly sexual abuse and ordered Australian clergy to help victims recover from their ordeals and for those responsible for the abuse to face the law.
"Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice," he said in Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral.
"These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation," he said.
The church in Australia, as in many other parts of the world, has been mired in a long-running controversy over its response to past abuses and allegations it tried to cover them up.
The pope said the cases of abuse had devastated victims and also damaged the church's standing.
"They have caused great pain and damaged the church's witness," he said, calling on the Australian church to weed out cases of abuse and help victims heal.
"I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil," the pope said.
"It is an urgent priority to promote a safer and more wholesome environment, especially for young people," he said in his homily in which he also reminded Catholic clergy of their vows of celibacy.
The pope said he hoped that dealing effectively with the sex abuse issue would "bring about healing, reconciliation and ever greater fidelity to the moral demands of the gospel".
Broken Rites, an Australian support group for victims of church-related sexual abuse, says 107 Catholic priests and religious brothers have been sentenced in Australian courts on sex charges.
Australian bishops apologised for past abuses in 2002 and the head of the Australian church, Cardinal George Pell, who attended Saturday's papal mass, had said the pope's comments on the issue would be "a welcome contribution".
Hopes that the pope would apologise for sex abuses at the hands of clergy grew after he offered a similar apology during a visit to the United States in April.
At the start of his trip to the United States, the pope said that sex abuse by clergy and others in the US church was a "great suffering" and shame and the church would to everything it could to ensure it did not happen again.
- AFP/so
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