Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Nearly a week after a Pennsylvania grand jury released its roughly 900-page report on sexual abuse by clergy, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has penned a letter condemning the alleged misconduct and pledging repentance.
“The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity,” Pope Francis wrote in the letter Monday, which is addressed to “the People of God.” “The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands.”
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