Tarrangona, Spain, Mar 24, 2010 / 16:05 pm
Archbishop Jaume Pujol of Tarragona, Spain noted Tuesday that Pope Benedict's letter to the Irish Bishops regarding clerical sex abuse is “extraordinarily strong and clear.”
Speaking to the Catalonian news site CatalunyaReligio, Archbishop Pujol said that he is "very hurt" by the abuse, because “it has offended God and has caused great harm to many people."
In his opinion, the Pope’s response to the crisis was "extraordinarily strong and clear" and did not make “any type of excuses.” The prelate also expressed the hope that a similar crisis would not occur in the Spanish region of Catalonia. However, he did note that, in this situation, Pope Benedict’s letter to the Irish Bishops "gives an explicit idea as to how the church should react.”
In order to prevent such situations in the future, Archbishop Pujol called for a strengthening of the commitment to chastity and the full observance of the commandments among priests and religious.