Reporting from Vatican City and Brighton, England — Pope Benedict XVI apologized Saturday to victims of priestly abuse in Ireland, acknowledging that the scandal had brought the church into disrepute but offering no specific action to punish clergy accused of involvement even as the crisis spread across Europe.
"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured," the pope wrote to Irish victims and their families. "I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel."
Amid charges of coverups, he acknowledged that church leaders had made "grave errors of judgment" in how they dealt with the problem of sexual abuse, and he called on offending priests and religious workers to submit "to the demands of justice."
The apology came in a highly anticipated pastoral letter that was sent to the church in Ireland on Friday and that was to be read out at Mass across the country Sunday.
With allegations of abuse bubbling up in other European countries, however, including Benedict's native Germany, some of the letter's contents were meant for a wider audience.
"When the pope speaks about the suffering of the victims and when he speaks of the perpetrators, these parts of the letter are for everybody," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
In the letter, the pope announced a Vatican-led investigation of certain dioceses, seminaries and religious orders in Ireland, to help the church overcome a scandal that has undermined its mission to a degree that "not even centuries of persecution succeeded in doing."
But to the outrage of victims groups and other critics, the pontiff did not address public demands for the resignation of bishops and church leaders accused of mishandling the crisis. Nor did he admit to what many say are shortcomings within the Vatican.
Instead, the pope urged "my brother bishops" to enforce church law on child abuse and "to cooperate with the civil authorities in their area of competence."
Whether the pope's comments will be enough to assuage growing public anger, even among the faithful, or to set the Roman Catholic Church on "a path of healing, renewal and reparation," as Benedict wrote, remains to be seen.
