{"id":2126,"date":"2010-04-15T17:18:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T17:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2010\/04\/pope-breaking-silence-says-chu.php"},"modified":"2010-04-15T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T17:18:14","slug":"pope-breaking-silence-says-chu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/04\/pope-breaking-silence-says-chu","title":{"rendered":"Pope, Breaking Silence, Says Church Must &#8216;Do Penance&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VATICAN CITY (RNS) Breaking his silence as an international clergy sex abuse scandal has roiled the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (April 15) spoke of the need to &#8220;do penance.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe pope, in an indirect reference to the abuse scandal making headlines around the world, made his comments in a sermon to members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.<br \/>\n&#8220;Now, under the attacks of the world, which speak to us of our sins, we see that to be able to do penance is a grace,&#8221; Benedict said, &#8220;and we see how necessary it is to do penance &#8212; that is, to recognize what is wrong in our lives: to open oneself to forgiveness, to prepare for pardon, to allow oneself to be transformed.&#8221;<br \/>\nEarlier in the sermon, Benedict referred to &#8220;subtle &#8212; and not so subtle &#8212; aggression against the church&#8221; in wider society.<br \/>\nBenedict himself has become the focus of the abuse scandal following charges that he mishandled several cases of pedophile priests in Germany and the United States before he became pope.<br \/>\nMany cardinals and bishops in the Vatican and around the world have vigorously defended Benedict&#8217;s record, but the pope himself has not addressed his role in the sex abuse scandal.<br \/>\nIn a sermon on Palm Sunday (March 28), the pope praised God-given &#8220;courage that does not allow us to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion,&#8221; which many listeners took as a reference to media coverage of the scandal.<br \/>\nThis weekend (April 17-18), Benedict will visit the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, where a Vatican spokesman has said it is possible that the pope will meet with abuse victims, for at least the fourth time since his election in 2005.<br \/>\nStill, the pope&#8217;s remarks fell flat with victims&#8217; advocates, who said Benedict will &#8220;win headlines for uttering a couple of sentences&#8221;<br \/>\nwithout taking specific steps to protect minors.<br \/>\n&#8220;When the pope can&#8217;t bring himself to utter the words `pedophile priest&#8217; or `child sex crimes&#8217; or `cover ups&#8217; or `complicit bishops,&#8217;<br \/>\nit&#8217;s hard to have faith that he is able to honestly and effectively deal with this growing crisis, said Mark Serrano, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.<br \/>\n<em>By FRANCIS X. ROCCA<br \/>\nCopyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VATICAN CITY (RNS) Breaking his silence as an international clergy sex abuse scandal has roiled the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (April 15) spoke of the need to &#8220;do penance.&#8221; The pope, in an indirect reference to the abuse scandal making headlines around the world, made his comments in a sermon to members&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope, Breaking Silence, Says Church Must &#039;Do Penance&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/04\/pope-breaking-silence-says-chu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope, Breaking Silence, Says Church Must &#039;Do Penance&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VATICAN CITY (RNS) Breaking his silence as an international clergy sex abuse scandal has roiled the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (April 15) spoke of the need to &#8220;do penance.&#8221; 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