Valletta, April 18: As the pedophilia scandals rock the Roman Catholic Church, embattled Pope Benedict XVI says the Church has been “wounded” by its sin.
The pontiff referred to the recent sex scandals involving Catholic priests on the first day of his visit to Malta.
The Pope said the people of the island love the Church — even if its body is wounded by sin.
About 100,000 people welcomed the pontiff in Malta’s capital Valletta.
But before his visit, angry crowds had defaced his images in the city. Some spray-painted the Maltese word for pedophile on a billboard.
In a separate scandal in Malta earlier this week, ten men testified to having been sexually molested by priests at an orphanage during the 1980s and 1990s.
The visit comes as the Pope has recently been under increasing pressure over sex abuse allegations involving priests in the US and Europe.
This is while victim support groups accuse the Catholic clergy, including the Pope, of being part of a systematic cover-up protecting suspected pedophile priests.
The journalists travelling with the Pope expressed disappointment as the pontiff refused to directly mention the word “abuse.”
They noted he talked about “wounds” and ‘”shipwreck” but studiously avoided ever mentioning the exact word.
——–Agencies