Dublin, Ireland, Jun 13, 2012 / 23:36 pm
At the request of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Marc Ouellet visited Ireland's traditional penitential pilgrimage site of Lough Derg to seek God's forgiveness for priests who sexually abused children in Ireland and everywhere in the Church.
"We have learned over the last decades how much harm and despair such abuse has caused to thousands of victims," the cardinal said in his June 12 homily during Mass at St. Patrick's Basilica at Lough Derg in County Donegal.
"In the name of the Church, I apologize once again to the victims, some of whom I have met here in Lough Derg," he said. "I come here with the specific intention of seeking forgiveness, from God and from the victims, for the grave sin of sexual abuse of children by clerics."
He said the Church "learned too late" that some of her leaders responded to the crimes of abuse in a way that was "often inadequate" in stopping the crimes.