Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Fri 10 Oct 2006Pope tells bishop of 'horror' at sex abuse in Ferns Pope Benedict, in the strongest language he has ever used in relation to clerical child sex abuse, has expressed his own "personal anguish and horror" at what happened in the Ferns diocese over a 40-year period from the early 1960s onwards.He said the "incomprehensible behaviour" of some clergy in Ferns had "devastated human lives and profoundly betrayed the trust of children, young people, their families, parish communities and the entire diocesan family".