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Pope Apologizes To All
Victims Of Sex Abuse
By Priests, Clergy
11-22-1

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, in his first message sent to the world directly over the Internet, has apologised to victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.

The apology, addressed among others to nuns in the developing world, was contained in a long and wide-ranging document issued by the Pope summing up the themes of a synod of bishops from Oceania that was held in the Vatican in 1998.

"Sexual abuse by some clergy and religious has caused great suffering and spiritual harm to the victims," the Pope said in a small part of the 120-page document on Thursday.

For the first time in his 23-year-old papacy, the Pope sent the document to churches around the world by pushing a button on a computer and despatching it by email over the Internet.

"It (sexual abuse) has been very damaging in the life of the Church and has become an obstacle to the proclamation of the Gospel," the Pope said in the document.

Only one paragraph of the document was dedicated to sexual abuse. The document ranged from subjects such as evangelisation and aboriginals, who he said were subjected to "shameful injustices" by some members of the Church in the past.

Still, the apology was important because it was the latest in a series of times the Pope has asked forgiveness from those who had been hurt by members of his Church.

In what appeared to be a reference to the sexual abuse of nuns in parts of the developing world, the Pope said:

"Sexual abuse within the Church is a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ," he said.

"The synod fathers wished to apologise unreservedly to the victims for the pain and disillusionment caused to them".

He said the Church in Oceania was seeking what he called "open and just" procedures to respond to complaints.

The Church he said also was "unequivocally committed to compassionate and effective care for the victims, their families, the whole community and the offenders themselves."

INTERNAL REPORTS

Last March, the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), a major U.S.-based Catholic weekly, ran a series of stories on internal reports in the Vatican about the sexual abuse of nuns and other women by priests and bishops around the world.

The Vatican acknowledged that the problem existed.

The internal reports said some priests and missionaries had forced nuns to have sex with them, and had in some cases committed rape and forced the victims to have abortions.

The reports cited cases in 23 countries, including the United States, the Philippines, Ireland and Papua New Guinea.

The author of one of the internal reports was nun and physician Maura O'Donohue, who presented it to the head of a Vatican department in February 1995.

The Vatican ordered a working group to study the problem with O'Donohue.

O'Donohue made specific reference to certain cases, one in which a priest forced a nun to have an abortion, after which she died. He then officiated at her funeral.

Last July, some 150 Catholics protested at the Vatican's United Nations mission, demanding an independent commission to investigate alleged violence against nuns by priests.

In a petition to the Pope they sought punishment for priests who engage in violence and reparations to victimised nuns.

In the NCR story, a former Canadian nun said the church did nothing after she was raped by her supervisor, an Irish priest, during a retreat in Durban, South Africa, in April 1985.

The woman, who had been a nun for 24 years at the time, said her superiors imposed a gag order on her after the rape.
 
 
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