Faced with a church sexual abuse scandal spreading across Europe, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday apologized directly to victims and their families in Ireland, expressing \u201cshame and remorse\u201d\u009d for what he called \u201csinful and criminal\u201d\u009d acts committed by clergy.<\/p>\n
But the pope did not require that church leaders be disciplined for past mistakes as some victims were hoping; nor did he clarify what critics see as contradictory Vatican rules they fear allow abuse to continue unpunished.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry,\u201d\u009d the pope said in a long-awaited, eight-page pastoral letter to Irish Catholics. \u201cYour trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The strong letter was written in language at once passionate, personal and sweeping. And the pope did take the relatively rare step of ordering a special apostolic delegation to be sent to unspecified dioceses in Ireland to investigate. But even that action raised questions among critics who wondered what the investigators might unearth beyond what was found in two wide-ranging and scathing Irish government reports released last year. One of those reports said the church and the police in Ireland had systematically colluded in covering up decades of sexual abuse by priests in Dublin.<\/p>\n