Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 213

depths of your pain and its enduring effect upon your lives and your relation-

ships, including your relationship with the Church. I know some of you find it

difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred. Yet

Christ's own wounds, transformed by his redemptive sufferings, are the very

means by which the power of evil is broken and we are reborn to life and

hope. I believe deeply in the healing power of his self-sacrificing love - even

in the darkest and most hopeless situations - to bring liberation and the

promise of a new beginning.

Speaking to you as a pastor concerned for the good of all God's children, I

humbly ask you to consider what I have said. I pray that, by drawing nearer

to Christ and by participating in the life of his Church - a Church purified by

penance and renewed in pastoral charity - you will come to rediscover

Christ's infinite love for each one of you. I am confident that in this way

you will be able to find reconciliation, deep inner healing and peace.

7. To priests and religious who have abused children

You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people

and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and

before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the

people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres.

Those of you who are priests violated the sanctity of the sacrament of Holy

Orders in which Christ makes himself present in us and in our actions. To-

gether with the immense harm done to victims, great damage has been done

to the Church and to the public perception of the priesthood and religious life.

I urge you to examine your conscience, take responsibility for the sins you

have committed, and humbly express your sorrow. Sincere repentance opens

the door to God's forgiveness and the grace of true amendment. By offering

prayers and penances for those you have wronged, you should seek to atone

personally for your actions. Christ's redeeming sacrifice has the power to

forgive even the gravest of sins, and to bring forth good from even the most

terrible evil. At the same time, God's justice summons us to give an account

of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit

yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy.