Pope Benedict to Australian sex-abuse victims: We’re sorry – sort of
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Yesterday at the Randwick horse-racing track in Sydney, Pope Benedict XVI addressed an international crowd of Roman Catholic faithful on the last day of the annual World Youth Day festivities that had brought the German-born pontiff to Australia for a week-long stay. At the racetrack, around mid-morning yesterday, “there were pilgrims stretching as far as the eye could see[,] but though indisputably large, by the Vatican’s own admission, crowds fell short of local organizers’ best expectations. As many as 500,000 were expected[;] the Vatican press office estimated 350,000, Sydney church officials more than 400,000, and the government 300,000.” Nevertheless, the mass Benedict conducted for his flock was widely considered to have been “the high point for the church at the end of its week-long World Youth Day celebrations. One triumphant church leader hailed it as Sydney’s ‘tsunami of faith and joy.’” (Sydney Morning Herald)
admin @ July 28, 2008