Pope acknowledges sex abuse scandal "badly handled"

By Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Wednesday acknowledged the Church had handled the pedophile priests scandal "very badly" and told U.S. bishops to bind up wounds and seek reconciliation with those who were "so seriously wronged."

For the second consecutive day, the pope said the scandal had caused "deep shame" and enormous pain as the result of priests betraying their vocation by sexually abusing minors with such "gravely immoral behavior."

After visiting the White House on Wednesday morning and praying with President George W. Bush, he dedicated a section of a speech to the bishops to the scandal that rocked the Church starting in 2002 and has forced U.S. dioceses to pay over $2 billion in damages.

"It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged," he said.

He said he agreed with an assessment by the head of the U.S. bishops conference that the crisis had been "sometimes very badly handled" and that only recently was "the scale and the gravity of the problem" more clearly understood.

The Church was criticized for transferring known abusers rather than defrocking them or turning them over to police.

"While it must be remembered that the overwhelming majority of clergy and religious in America do outstanding work ... it is vitally important that the vulnerable always be shielded by those who would cause harm," Benedict told the bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

But he said the problem ran deeper, saying children should be "spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent" in society today.