Pope Francis spoke of sexual abuse and stated that the Church was "hurt by his sin"

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – During a Mbad in Panama, the

dad Francisco

recognized that

Catholic Church

is "wounded by his sin", at a time when the institution is plunged into a torrent of

scandals of badual abuse

.

Francis spoke in front of priests, consecrated and lay in the cathedral of

Panama

, the country where he arrived on Wednesday for the first time, to participate in World Youth Day (WYD): an event that brings together the highest leader of the Catholic Church with tens of thousands of young people.

"The fatigue of hope was born when a church was hurt by its sin and so many times we did not hear so many cries in which was hidden the cry of the Master:" Mon God, why did you abandon me? " Said Francisco in the church of Santa María la Antigua, Patroness of Panama.

"Faith is used and degenerates," added the first Latin American pope, who took office in 2013 in the hope of modernizing the Church, whose Latin American followers are being caught by evangelicals.

In recent years, various scandals have struck the image of the Church with the largest number of faithful in the world. In early 2012, a series of secret Vatican documents – known as Vatileaks – involving corruption, blackmail and badual abuse were leaked to the press.

And in the following years, allegations of

abuse of minors

from Catholic priests from many countries of the world, which again shook the foundations of the Holy See. For this reason, he asked for a "renewal" of his followers and explained that, for him, the Church should "calm and quench his thirst, refresh the stages and relax to continue the mission".

The pope made this call as the Vatican was preparing to receive, on February 21 and 24, a meeting of bishops to address the problem of badual abuse, which eroded the credibility of the Vatican. institution.

The Pontiff intends to leave this meeting with "concrete measures" to fight "this terrible plague," said yesterday the acting spokesman of the Holy See, Alessandro Gisotti.

At the end of Mbad, Francisco visited the San José Major Seminary and had lunch, privately, with a group of 10 young people, two from each of the five continents.

After the meal, Brenda Noriega, a young woman born in Mexico and residing in California, USA, said at a press conference that the Pontiff had called "pedophile cases" a "horrible crime" in the United States. clergy. He said: "The pope told us that it was a horrible crime and that the church could not tolerate this type of crime."

The young woman explained that she had asked what she could do in her role as youth minister, because "some begin to lose faith, not in God, but in the structure of the child. 39; Church. " Prior to that, Francisco replied that "young people are suffering" and "the victims are suffering" and that what they must do is accompany them and "pray for them and for the bishops".

Later, during a vast vigil in which hundreds of thousands of people took part in a huge field facing the Pacific Ocean, the pope sent a message to the young people to tell them "yes" to desire to serve, The number of priests in the Catholic Church decreases.

During his tour, which lasted until Sunday, Francisco visited a juvenile prison, pleaded for migrants and condemned the violence and "plague" of feminicides in Latin America: a region that shelters barely 9% of the world's population where 39% of all homicides on the planet are committed.

Before leaving, Francisco will celebrate Mbad and visit a hospice for AIDS patients.