VATICAN: The Pope's reference to clerical abuse of children came a day after youth representatives criticised his failure to refer to the issue earlier during World Youth Day, a six-day event which culminated in yesterday's Papal Mass, reports Padraig O'Morain.
"The Roman-Catholic Church can only win back her credibility by acknowledging the 'beam' in her own eye and being prepared to remove it", said We are Church-(YOUTH), an organisation made up of teenagers and young adults. It draws support mainly from the German-speaking countries where 2.3 million people have signed a declaration seeking the renewal of the church.
The group's spokesman, Mr Tobias Raschke, blamed episcopal inaction over clerical abuse for a "dramatic" fall in the number of young people at this year's event compared to the previous meeting in Rome in 2000. "Because the bishops have persistently hushed up and concealed sexual abuse, many parents have refused to let their children go to Toronto," he said. "In the circumstances they were right to do so."