Embarrassed And Saddened By Sexual Harassment In The French Catholic Church, Pope Francis Reiterates Not To Repeat It

Pope Francis. (Screenshot of Vatican News YouTube)

JAKARTA - Pope Francis said he was saddened and ashamed by the Catholic Church's inability to address the sexual abuse of children in France on Wednesday.

Quoting Reuters on October 6, Pope Francis also stressed that the church should be able to make itself a safe home for everyone.

"I want to express to the victims my grief, sorrow for the trauma they have suffered as well as my shame, our shame, for the inability of the church, for too long, to put them in the center of its attention", Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience.

Speaking a day after a major investigation revealed French clergy had abused more than 200,000 children over 70 years, Pope Francis invited Catholics in France to take responsibility for what had happened, to make the Church a safe home for everyone.

"This is a shameful time", he said, calling on bishops to make every effort to ensure "similar tragedies don't happen again".

Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report, said the Catholic Church had shown indifference to abuses for years. Preferring to protect himself over the victims, with many of them between the ages of 10 and 13.

The peak of sexual harassment was 1950-1970, the commission said in its report, with cases reappearing in the early 1990s.

Pope Francis said he was close to French priests who face "hard, but healthy" challenges.

In addition, Pope Francis has also expressed his gratitude to the victims, for the courage they have to come forward and denounce what they have gone through.

Separately, a Vatican court is expected to sentence a man now a priest for alleged sexual abuse committed at a youth seminary in the Vatican before he was ordained.

To note, the trial is the first in the Vatican related to sexual harassment that allegedly occurred on the territory of the Vatican.