Valletta, April 18: Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Malta amid a sexual abuse scandal that has been engulfing the Catholic Church over the past few months.
The Pope was greeted by thousands of his followers in Malta’s capital Valletta on Saturday.
Pope Benedict XVI said the Roman Catholic Church has been “wounded by its sins” as he arrived in Malta for his first foreign trip of 2010. He also met with Maltese President George Abela.
A separate scandal erupted in Malta earlier this week. Ten men have alleged they were sexually molested as children by priests at an orphanage in the deeply Catholic island nation during the 1980s and 1990s.
It is unclear whether the Pope will raise the issue of the sexual abuse scandal during his two-day stay in Valletta, which ends on Sunday.
——–Agencies