Pope spreads blame for church's humiliating record on child abuse by priests

Pope spreads blame for church's humiliating record on child abuse by priests: "UNIMAGINABLE number of child sex-abuse reports this year was a humiliation the church must accept as an exhortation to truth and renewal, Pope Benedict XVI has said.

The Pope used his annual speech to Rome's cardinals and bishops to urge the church to reflect on how it let the abuse happen. But he also blamed the influence of the secular morality of child pornography and sex tourism, and a form of moral relativism that influenced Catholic theology in the 1970s.

''We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred,'' he said. ''We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen.''

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The Pope said the church was well aware of the gravity of this sin committed by priests, and of the church's responsibility. But nor could he be silent about ''the context of these times''.

''There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society,'' he said on Monday. ''The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times.''"

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