Popes: Bishops who reassign suspect pedophiles should resign
Francis spoke about the church's handling of sex abuse cases while flying home Wednesday from Mexico, where victims of that country's most notorious pedophile, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, are still coping with the trauma of his abuse.
Because a priest is consecrated to bring a child to God.
The Legion saga represents one of the gravest scandals of the 20th-century Catholic Church, emblematic of the way Church leaders protected their own at the expense of victims of clerical sex abuse.
The scandal tarnished the legacy of St. John Paul II, since Vatican officials under his watch ignored credible allegations of Maciel's misdeeds and instead held him up as a model of religious orthodoxy who brought in vocations and donations.
Francis recalled that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was in charge of the Vatican office that handled sex abuse cases, had tried for years to sanction Maciel but was blocked.