Italy: Pope Benedict XVI said he would sign a pastoral letter to Ireland’s Roman Catholics about the paedophile priest scandal that has rocked their country.
Voicing his “deep concern” over the crisis, the pope told his weekly gen-eral audience at the Vatican he would sign the long-awaited letter “dealing with this painful situation” tomorrow and would send it “soon after”.
“In recent months, the Church in Ireland has been severely shaken as a result of the child abuse crisis,” the 82-year-old pontiff said.
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