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

Pope Francis during his weekly general audience on Wednesday (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

Pope Francis expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France, and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first.

The pope spoke during his regular audience at the Vatican about a report released on Tuesday that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950.