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Pope to publish letter on sexual abuse of children in Ireland
Mar 20, 2010, 9:24 GMT
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI is due to release a highly anticipated pastoral letter on Saturday, in which he is expected to explain how the church will deal with cases of child sex abuse by priests.
The letter follows revelations of widespread paedophilia by priests over decades in Ireland, and is expected to be noted also in the pope's native Germany, the Netherlands and Austria where cases of child sex abuse by priests were also revealed in recent months.
On Wednesday Benedict told the faithful attending his weekly general audience that he hoped the letter 'will help in the process of repentance, healing and renewal.'
The pontiff's remarks coincided with an apology by the head of Ireland's, Roman Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, for failing to alert police about a priest convicted of sexually abusing 20 children over a 40-year period.
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