Pope Francis: 'We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them'

Pope Francis has issued a letter to Catholics around the world on sex abuse by priests. Photo / AP

Pope Francis said in a letter released today by the Vatican that the Catholic Church has not dealt properly with "crimes" against children and needs to prevent sexual abuses from being "covered up and perpetuated."

"We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them," Francis wrote.

The 2000-word letter addressed to the "People of God" marks one of Francis's most direct attempts to address the painful abuse cases that have eroded the Catholic Church's credibility and prompted sharp calls from inside and outside the church for improved accountability.

Francis did not lay out any concrete steps the Vatican would take, but he acknowledged that systemic change is needed.

"Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such [abuses] from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated," Francis wrote.

The letter was issued after the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that documented alleged abuse in the state by more than 300 priests against 1000 children over seven decades.

This weekend, Francis will travel to Ireland, a country scarred by decades of sexual abuse in parishes and in Catholic-run schools. In Dublin, many have demanded that Francis acknowledge during his trip the role that church higher-ups played in silencing victims and helping to keep pedophile priests on the job.

Though the Catholic Church has been dealing for more than three decades with publicly known cases of abuse, new cases in recent months have caused a wave of anger among Catholics, who say the Vatican has been slow to make meaningful reforms.

In his letter, Francis specifically mentioned the Pennsylvania grand jury report, but he did not reference other scandals in the United States, Chile or Australia that have ensnared his papacy.

Francis said the Pennsylvania report reflected "abuse of power and of conscience."

"The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced," Francis wrote. "But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity."

May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them. https://t.co/3CDnYUBLid

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) August 20, 2018