Benedict was answering questions that were submitted in advance by reporters aboard a special Alitalia airliner as he was flying from Rome to Washington to begin his first papal pilgrimage to the United States.
“It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” Benedict said. “It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission … to these children.
“I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future,” the pope said.
Benedict pledged that pedophiles would not be priests in the Roman Catholic church.
“We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry,” Benedict said, speaking in English. “It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound.”
Benedict’s pilgrimage was the first trip by a pontiff to the United States since the sex abuse scandal rocked U.S. dioceses in the early 2000s and triggered lawsuits that have cost the church hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
From boston.com
i beleave the problem was not the church letting pedophiles into the church ,im sure these people did not say they were pedophiles when they became priest, the problem was the church did not do anything when they found out, instead they put more childrens in harms way rather they disciple and deal with these priest, they should have been sent to a monistery in the mountains away from family and children or they should have called the police and charged them with child abuse. either way ignoring it just caused it to blow up in their faces in the end.Anne