Pope Benedict XVI says sex abuse crisis "sometimes badly handled"

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Pope Benedict XVI

There were no harsh words, no scolding from the pulpit. But the message Pope Benedict XVI delivered to the nation's Roman Catholic leaders after evening worship Wednesday was stark: Bishops had mishandled the church's response to clergy sex abuse, and they've only just started making up for it.

"There is kind of an implicit rebuke for the bishops in the sense of, 'How could this be allowed to happen?" said James Hitchcock, a Catholic historian from St. Louis University who has written extensively about the church in the modern world. "He probably saw the necessity of doing it but I think it also indicates he feels very strongly about it."

As is often the case with papal comments, Benedict made the point indirectly, in remarks before hundreds of American bishops in the Immaculate Conception shrine.

He said he agreed with a comment in a preceding speech by Chicago Cardinal Francis George that the crisis was "sometimes very badly handled."

He went on to acknowledge the extensive reforms the bishops have enacted in the last several years to protect children and keep predators out of parishes. And he noted that abuse was a "scourge" in every part of society, not just in the church.

But he also spoke at some length to describe the bishops' duty to heal the wounds they partly caused. It is their "God-given duty" to reach out lovingly to victims, Benedict said.

Bishops must restore morale in the priesthood, he said, comparing the pain and embarrassment of innocent clergy to "Christ in his Passion." And he told the bishops that they must "lead by example," living lives "in a manner closely configured to Christ."

It was the most direct commentary on the crisis ever from the highest level of the church. "The pope always uses very diplomatic and polite language. He is not going to wag his finger at either the bishops or the president," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican" and senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "But you read between the lines and it's an acknowledgment that the bishops didn't do a good job."

Advocates for victims have complained bitterly that no bishops have been disciplined for failing to warn parents and police about abusers. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 after files were unsealed showing that guilty priests had been allowed to remain in parishes.

On his flight to the U.S. from Rome, the pope said he was deeply ashamed of the scandal and would fight to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood.

Clergy sex abuse has become a public issue in Canada, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere. The pope may be considering making it easier to oust abusive Catholic clergy everywhere.