Pope Francis holds his skull cap as he arrives for his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo / AP
Pope Francis has acknowledged that the Catholic Church was slow to address the sex abuse crisis, including its widely criticised but not publicly acknowledged practice of moving priests who had abused children to other churches instead of reporting them to the police, saying "the church's conscience came a bit late".
The Pope gave off-the-cuff remarks to a commission he created to tackle the issue, acknowledging the slow pace of church trials and an overall lack of awareness of the problem inside St Peter's walls.
"Paedophilia is a sickness," Pope Francis said. "Today one repents, moves on, we forgive him, then two years later he relapses. We need to get it in our heads that it's a sickness."
The Pope announced he would do away with Vatican appeal trials for cases where evidence of abuse against minors is proven.
"If there's evidence, that is final," he said. "Those who're sentenced because of sexual abuses against minors can indeed appeal to the Pope and ask for a pardon, but I've never signed one of those, and I never will," he said. "I hope this much is clear."
