INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Papal letter fails to calm anger over Irish abuses
March 20, 2010 21:45 EDT

DUBLIN (AP) -- Pope Benedict has written an unprecedented letter to the people of Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Catholic Church in their country. But that's failed to calm the anger of many victims.

They accuse the Vatican of ducking its own responsibility in promoting a worldwide culture of cover-up.

Andrew Madden, a former Dublin altar boy, says he doesn't need the pope "to apologize for the child abusers." He says he and thousands of other victims need the pope "to apologize for the church hierarchy's role in choosing to protect the abusers at the expense of children."

Benedict's letter, read aloud in churches across Ireland, rebuked that nation's church leaders for "grave errors of judgment" in failing to observe the church's secretive canon laws.

The pope suggested that child-abusing priests could have been expelled quickly had Irish bishops applied the church's own laws correctly.

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