Pope expresses ‘shame’ at scale of clergy abuse in France

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France. The pope spoke during his Wednesday regular audience at the Vatican about a report released a day earlier that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950. He expressed “sadness and pain for the trauma that they suffered’’ and shame over ”the incapacity of the church for too long to put them at the center of its concerns.” The pope also expressed his “closeness and paternal support” to French priests in the face of a “difficult test.’’