Pope acknowledges scandals driving people away

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Pope Francis has acknowledged that the sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church are driving people away and said the church must change its ways if it wants to keep future generations.

Francis referred directly to the crisis convulsing his papacy on the fourth and final day of his Baltic pilgrimage, which coincided with the release of a devastating new report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in Germany.

Francis told a gathering of young people in largely secular Estonia Tuesday that he knew many young people felt the church has nothing to offer them and simply doesn’t understand their problems today.

He acknowledged their complaints and said: “We ourselves need to be converted; we have to realize that in order to stand by your side we need to change many situations that, in the end, put you off.”

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