Pope Benedict XVI said today that the Catholic Church will take action to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting with victims.
During his weekly public audience in St Peter's Square, Benedict recounted his weekend meeting in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as children by priests in a church-run orphanage.
"I shared with them their suffering, and emotionally prayed with them, assuring them of church action," the pope said.
Today's marked his first public and direct remarks on the crisis since March, when a letter he wrote was read out at masses in Ireland.
At the time of the private meeting in Malta on Sunday, the Vatican issued a statement saying the pontiff had told the men that the church would do everything in its power to bring justice to abusive priests and would implement "effective measures" to protect children.
Neither Benedict nor the Vatican has elaborated on what action or measures are being considered.
Last week, the Vatican for the first time issued guidelines telling bishops they should report cases of abusive priests to police where civil laws require it. While the Vatican has insisted that was long its policy, it was never written explicitly and victims, lawyers, government-backed inquiries and grand juries have all accused the church of mounting a cover-up to keep clerical abuse secret and away from civil jurisdiction.
Benedict said in a homily last week that Christians must repent for sins and recognise mistakes in comments widely interpreted as concerning the scandal.