Pope says Catholic Church should not be judged by modern standards over sexual abuse scandal as he refuses to answer questions after 3,700 children were assaulted by German priests
Pope gave press conference yesterday on his way home from tour in Estonia
He said Church should not be judge by modern standards over sex abuse
Also refused to answer awkward questions until he finished speaking about tour
By CHARLIE MOORE
DAILYMAIL.COM
26 September 2018
The pope said the Catholic Church should not be judged by modern standards over sexual abuse scandals as he refused to answer awkward questions in a carefully choreographed press conference on board the papal plane yesterday.
Heading home from a four-day tour of the Baltics, the pope’s spokesman said Francis would only take questions about the trip despite a bombshell report revealing that 3,700 children had been sexually assaulted by priests in Germany.
He did eventually get to the thorny topic and admitted that historic abuse by clerics in several countries was ‘monstrous.’
But he insisted the Church should not be judged by modern standards because attitudes towards abuse, which he said happens not just in the Church but in society generally, have changed dramatically over the years.
‘In olden times, these things were covered up, they were even covered up in homes, when an uncle raped a niece, when a father raped his children,’ he said.
‘It was covered up because it was an enormous shame. That was the mentality in the last century.
He cited the example of the death penalty, which the Vatican applied until the late 19th century: ‘Then the moral conscience grows,’ he said.
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